welkyn

So I've just finished and released the first full-length for this project: "Celtic Legends Volume 1", including some old, mostly new material. Definitely for fans of epic, folkish metal. https://storrsson.bandcamp.com/album/celtic-legends-volume-1

Portuguese BM has always been solid, as far as I've listened. They had the best take on the whole "DSBM" thing too, much preferable to me compared to the American style... Digging the Irae album so far, I'll listen to the others when I have time! Here's my contribution to the Portuguese scene, haha - I did vocals with this guy for some of his releases:

That's a good list man Welcome to the forum, enjoy your stay!

One of the things that I've noticed (sorry if this has already been pointed out) is that a lot of the good metal coming out nowadays has the same spirit, the same vibe as the good metal that was coming out in the '80s and '90s (and late '70s, for that matter). So I don't think it's a case of metal being inherently "better" in the "golden age" - there's a load of shit metal from the '80s and '90s, loads of demo-level bands that never got anywhere because they really weren't all that good, musically speaking. At the same time, there's comparatively a lot less of the '80s metal spirit around nowadays (though obviously that's picked up like wildfire in the past 10-15 years). Even some of those crappy demo bands back in the day had more oumph in their music - there's a ballsiness and sense of power that was picked up on and communicated in the '80s, which diminished a bit in the '90s (recording techniques, reliance on increased gain/distortion over "heavy playing" etc.), but then got brought back in the '00s with a lot of these "retro" bands and people working out that you can't just play through a million pedals to get a heavy sound... There's something in the way of playing and the kind of riffs, too, which makes heavy metal "heavy".

Cheers Natassja Got a new one out just yesterday, "Freedom We Claim" - here's the youtube link:

Totally, if you're talking about "NWOBHM bands," i.e. "New Wave of British Heavy Metal Musicians," then Priest are too old school to fit the bill. Rocka Rolla is '74, don't know if many people even considered whether most bands were "heavy metal" back then! But I think, if you're going on albums, then Defenders of the Faith, Screaming for Vengeance, British Steel etc. fall within that category of "New Wave of British Heavy Metal Music," even if the band is an older band. I mean, if they'd changed their name to "Prudence Yeast" in 1980, would that have let them to fall into the NWOBHM category - assuming they released the same music? I dunno, I always thought of NWOBHM as a style more than a collection of bands. That's how people today are calling their music "NWOBHM" even though, technically speaking, we're 25+ years on from the actual event! Maybe you call it "trad metal" at that point - but Priest were "trad metal" before NWOBHM was a thing...

I consider Priest, at the very least, to be part of the NWOBHM movement because they championed the style. Not really Sabbath or Motorhead, because they didn't produce albums with the classic "NWOBHM" sound (to my ear, at least).

I answered this in another thread, here's the full text: The reason metal appeals mostly to a male demographic is because the warriors of the world are constituted, predominantly, by males. Historically speaking, females were in the vast minority amongst members of war cults, but there are historical cases of female warriors. In Ireland and Scotland we had the Ban Gaisgedaig, who were all-female trainers of young nobles - these women were regarded as some of the best fighters in Europe. But the vast majority of fighters in the field would've been men, mostly "older boys" - between 18-20 to around 25. A lot of people died. People who got beyond their mid-20s would very likely settle down on some land at some point (either inherited, bought or seized), would get a wife, raise children, and join in war efforts seasonally if the people voted for it. But they wouldn't be part of the war cult any more. The war cult was all year round, camping/poaching in Summer, hosted in halls over Winter. Same tradition stretched from Iberia up to Scotland, over to Scandinavia and the Baltic, down into the eastern Steppes (Ukraine), across the Black Sea into Anatolia (Turkey), and westward again all the way through Thrace, the Balkans, the Alps, Gaul, and everywhere in between. Greece and Rome were exceptions to this norm in that their states forbade war cults at some point in their history, opting for standing militias and/or full military instead. The war band ethos was maintained in most of the rest of Europe up until the early middle ages - tended to be a result of Christianisation, as you might expect. Elsewhere in Eurasia it was maintained as far up as the past few centuries. In some places it seems to have survived as a cultural affectation, not so much as a functioning military wing. But the tradition is ubiquitous - practically the same traits turn up in different ways all over the world (this is by no means an exclusively Eurasian phenomenon) - so it makes sense that it would try to emerge in some way in the present day, especially considering that the usual channels are completely blocked up - intentionally, I might add. We can't up ship, leave property behind, go to the woods to hunt and forage and fight enemies for our countries, for so many reasons that I'd need my own thread to talk about it (do not tempt me, you will regret it). Heavy metal is actually a really good outlet for the natural warrior spirit in Man - mostly in men, but sometimes in women as well. And heavy metal women are fucking cool, if I may say so. Heavy metal reflects timeless virtues in many respects - steadfastness and strength, holding your own, being true to yourself and your kin group, brotherhood, loyalty, many of the things which people have already mentioned here. And it's inherently antithetical to the "global zeitgeist" of depressive consumption, surrender of power, and self-obsession. It's a big "fuck you" to the establishment - bigger than hippies, punk, rave culture or faux-anarchism. Heavy metal says "you're gonna die, motherfucker - just like me - but I don't mind." It's a harsh acceptance of reality, allowing for primal joy, the thrill of exertion towards survival - warrior culture, strait out of hunting culture. Male culture - and there's nothing wrong with that. Could've been the females that did the hunting and the fighting, but it wasn't. I think we kind of have to work with that rather than trying to cover it up. Men are built for war because they've fought; women are less so because they haven't done it as much. I don't see why people have a problem with this, but clearly they do - I chalk it up to fundamental pussiness, and suggest that they get into a war to sort it out. Hope the history lesson puts some things in perspective!

I can give you a historical/ethnocultural description if you like, which at the very least accounts for significant trends that have arisen within metal over the past 50 years. Heavy Metal is old school "warrior culture" bubbling up from underneath a plastic system of control. Long story short, the guys 'n gals that used to protect folk from thugs are no longer allowed to do so (by law), and those thugs - the meanest of them, at least - have ended up crawling their ways into positions of power (difficult not to see this nowadays with all the leaks and scandals showing what a bunch of predatory crooks our politicians are). In the absence of normal release mechanisms, we channel natural violence into heavy culture (and heavy drinking/consumption...) The prevailing emphasis on altered states of consciousness (incl. drug consumption), the forms of ritual gathering (gigs, festivals and so on), the deification of cultural heroes, and even the tendency towards dark clothing, face paint, internal symbolism and shock/horror aspects are all traits of warrior cults. The "corpse paint" of Norwegian Black Metal is even directly related to the war paint worn by north Alpine tribes in the centuries surrounding the ascension of the Roman Emperors - Immortal referred to it as "war paint" earlier on before capitulating to popular sentiment more often than not. But the tradition is based on the same idea - the point is to look like a corpse, like an undead warrior, risen from the grave to bring death to the enemy. It's ancient psychological warfare. I shouldn't have to add that these ancient war cults would have involved predominantly young men, a brotherhood-based society, subversion of wider cultural norms, "heterodox" spiritualities and so on. Literally, the heavy metal subculture is the old war cult reborn in the modern age. We're not allowed to kill bad guys any more (most of them are government officials) so we keep ourselves going with culture and kinship. A lot of metalheads train with weapons or in hand-to-hand combat, a lot of them are interested in ancient culture, mythology, and fantasy, we've got a lot of wargamers and computer gamers who like medieval or Tolkienish settings and so on - to me, it's pretty clear that it's war cult. And that it should produce this loud, brazen, anti-stupidity, ultimately very real music (that's what "heaviness" is - the degree to which music reflects reality), makes complete sense in that context. We have descriptions from Roman times of Germanic warriors yelling a barritus - that is, a deep guttural sound reflected off the back of shields to present a wall of heavy noise to the enemy. That's fucking metal.

Hey guys, long time no see! I've been moving about for a while so I haven't been on the forums in ages (again). Been working on some music in the meantime, thought I'd share it here. I know there are some old school fans on the board Let me know what you think!

Haha, holy shit, another one XD I know someone else (besides me) who's exactly the same way. Funny that...

Black Metal documentaries: Mayhem Documentary Satan Rir Media Another Mayhem One Det Svarte Alvor A lot of the rest of the BM ones are either tackier, less informative, or otherwise not as interesting as these, though I've definitely missed a load out. If you're like me and find '90s BM culture a bit funny, check out the Belgian one as well, it's on youtube! Death Metal documentaries: Death Metal Special '93 Thrash Till Death Could probably find more but bit pressed for time right now, will post back later with any more I dredge up :)

I went to the Hague once or twice, seemed like a really nice city (as far as cities go..) Better than Amsterdam for me, anyway I'm currently in London after having lived in Edinburgh for 6 years, but I'm soon to be moving to Hereford, thence on to the Forest of Dean/Wye Valley kind of area if I can get my shit together. Should be nice... Not a fan of big cities and the like, it's a bit jivy being in London atm but we're a way out of anywhere major so it's not too bad. It still smells though, there are no stars, foul windz and way too much traffic noise for my liking. I miss quiet Edinburgh, but will enjoy even quieter Herefordshire soon enough

Hey man, not sure how much I could help but just want to say your first track there is really good, the sound is fine as far as I'm concerned and the riffs and song structure are great! Would love to hear this stuff when it's finished What kind of thing did you have in mind for vocals? Could give it a shot at some point if you're interested.

God damn, just got back from a weekend with my extended family and they're all mad punsters... Thought I'd escaped that shit XD Cheers everyone! Looking good around here, some really cool stuff people have been talking about

Wow, cool to see lots of people have similar experiences to me... I've been playing guitar for 13 years or so, been singing for 21 and played drums for like, 4-5 years? Can't remember. I'm ok at keyboards as well, and can play "bass" (i.e. play guitar on a bass...). I have the same thing as a lot of people as far as writing music goes, I hear a lot of it in my head and then sit down later to try and work it out, a lot of the best stuff I've recorded has been stuff that took me weeks to learn to play! The music in my head is way too hard for me to do, you'd need some kind of superband with 40 musicians to pull some of it off XD But a lot of it is a lot simpler, a lot cooler, a lot easier for me to get down, and I really enjoy the process of finding out how to play what I can already hear. As far as instruments themselves go, my weapon of choice is an Ibanez RG7, my wife's got some beautiful Ibanez bass as well (that I steal at every opportunity... hehehe). GSR205B it says on the head, but I remember not being able to find it as an official Ibanez model so that's probably wrong. Started off on a Dean guitar, then got myself a mock PRS, then I think it was Ibanez all the way through - something about their guitars just sounds good to me. I'm playing through a Blackstar Heavy Metal pedal at the moment, the sound is something else... Was with Marshall for ages beforehand and got used to their distortion sound, but I felt it dropped a bit in quality when I upgraded my old amp for a new head... So I got this pedal, and it's the shit, man! Range of tone from Sodom's earliest output to some of these US country style bands I used to hear on the TV all the time (Down etc.) Really fun to play around with, managed to get good NWOBHM, DM, BM, Doom and Sludge tones out of it so far! Bit of studio engineering to help with the EQ and effects but on its own it's a fucking amazing piece of kit! And no, I'm not paid to advertise on their behalf, I just think it's really cool XD

Haha, big barrel of fish there... Yeah, metal used to be my spirituality, I guess. I opened up with the spiritual stuff a few years ago after getting high and listening to Yes (which is DEFINITELY "spiritual music," if you can dig it...), and now I find that metal occupies a very particular area of that whole region. I mean, if you think about it, spirituality and music have been tied together since they started... People originally would have sung out of joy, and joy is really at the core of spirituality. Even nowadays many "spiritual" movements in (and outside of) religions have a big emphasis on singing and dancing as a means of celebrating life, God, whatever it is they talk about. I kind of feel the same, I suppose - I like to celebrate things through music, and I find metal is definitely one of the most "celebratory" styles out there in that it's no-holds-barred, off the wall, totally ecstatic and primal shit. Used to be hardcore anti-religion blah blah blah kind of thing, but that's its own kind of spirituality - usually it's an anti-form, anti-dogma thing, preferring to be "unspiritually spiritual." With the right interpretation of what the word means, spirituality is what everything's about. So at that point, yeah, music is definitely a vehicle for spirituality. I've had a lot of what I've later realised were "spiritual experiences" just through listening to music. Nightside Eclipse and Burzum, Altars of Madness, some parts of Maiden, Bathory, all of these have had profound effects on my state of consciousness at specific points in my life. Music is powerful shit!

One of the features of extreme metal composition is that it's often motif based beyond being "merely" riff based (though being riff based itself seems to lend a certain baroque/classical quality to it). The same ideas are repeated through a song or an album with minor variations (melodic or structural) relative to what's happened earlier on in the song/album... That's what makes it feel more tied together than a lot of other rock music which can be just licks thrown together without an ear for consistency or development. Classical is practically just motif development to a great degree, so that might be where a lot of the similarity lies. Most of what people call "classical music" is through composed, whereas most metal is based on phrase repetition (like pop music). However, you do get an awful lot of classical music (esp. Baroque and Classical eras) which features phrase repetition in melodic structure even if keys modulate through the piece.. Thinking very much of Bach, Mozart, and I guess some Beethoven here. That's the stuff which usually reminds me of metal in terms of the structure of the music, if not the specifics of composition and intent. Wagner is where a lot of the feeling and "gravitas" of metal can be found. Metal is also clearly a folk form, though. Most metal musicians for a long time learned riffs by ear, they weren't necessarily taught to play their instruments, they had a feel for the sound and went from there. That's why early metal can have diverse riff styles and sounds but still have a sense of being tied together somehow... Thinking also of bands like Hellhammer and Bathory who did certain things that other musicians then picked up on later and worked on, esp. Darkthrone, Burzum etc. The whole of death metal and black metal were based on musicians playing similar sounding things without having been "taught" any standard pieces (or any theory at all) - seems more like folk than classical at that point (I'm using "folk" in quite a loose sense, here). I never found tabs or anything for songs I liked, I used to listen really hard to the music itself and work it out on a guitar. That's one of the differences between "classical" music and world music (incl. folk and country), in my experience - while the former is taught in quite a structured way, the latter is more about picking it up and learning as you go. Metal for me is healthily within the two bounds - there are aspects that clearly mimic classical structure and style, and there are aspects which are rooted in a folk tradition (namely "heavy metal," being its very own tradition!). I could emphasise the origin in Blues, but I think that's overstated a lot... Black Sabbath really jumped out of that whole game in their first few albums, and as soon as NWOBHM hit the scene, metal was clearly its very own beast. Edit: long story short, I think that structurally metal can come close to classical, historically it's a lot like its own kind of folk tradition, it's basically just its own thing as far as these two extremes go!

I would be so happy if Slayer had stayed like this for 3-4 albums instead of going Reign in Blood so quickly... They topped the speed and violence at that point and then felt they had to move on, but what I really like about HtC and Hell Awaits is that they have this brooding atmosphere - the whole thing is really dark, not necessarily bloody and violent and full speed all the way through. I liked the themes of mystery and mythology, undead and magic, as well as serial killings and the like, feels like that kind of stuff fell out as Slayer became a bit "cool" after signing with whatever label it was (EMI? Can't remember). Anyway, HtC is seriously good, that and HA are my top 2 thrash. Bordering on death metal, some of this stuff...

By far one of the best DM records ever... The thing which sells it for me is how they keep a consistent tone and feeling throughout the whole thing, it's really a "composite piece" as I think people say. Like classical music, everything ties together so nicely. If you listen to the riffs, you notice this 1-4-3-4-2-4-3-4 motif coming up all the time (Chapel, Maze, Rites), I find it cements a certain atmosphere throughout the record.. There are other things they do this with as well, sometimes particular parts (or even kinds) of solos at specific points, bringing back certain drum or vocal rhythms later on, the whole thing feels like it's been built (or "grew") with one vision, one ideal in mind. Probably the baseline for DM, as far as I'm concerned - if it's not up there with Altars of Madness, I don't have time to listen to it anymore... Good review, man, reminded me why I love this record so much

Thought I'd resurrect my original intro thread rather than make a new one. Hey everyone! Long time no see! Sure you've all forgotten me by now So my internet died for a while, then my laptop died for a while, then some other things happened including illness and change of address and all sorts, but I'm back in a place with internet and thought I'd return and see how everything's going on here, looked like one of the best metal forums I've seen Not got much to report other than that I've got some music coming out soon, anyone into old school heavy metal? I'm sure I'll put a thread up somewhere at some point for that shit when it's done (looking back, I said as much in the first post, haha) Hope you've all kept well, looking forward to good discussions

We must agree, first, that there is a Reality; that there is Truth. It is impossible to deny this, as without a fundamental reality, any denial would have no base, and so could not come about. Thus: reality is. What it is we can leave aside, for now. However, it certainly seems to me that the purpose of life must be to find out exactly what reality is. Furthermore, there are tools and methods available to us so that we might do this (i.e. spiritual disciplines). I don't think one can really find out what reality is, in the descriptive or normative sense. Rather, one realises that one is reality. Have you ever woken up from a horrible dream, totally relieved that it was all a dream?

I share this sentiment, Don Q. I like a nice, clean, mid-heavy distortion (so you can actually hear the individual tones being played, as well as chords etc.), I don't like overcompression (or much studio magic at all, really - why can't sound guys just record a fucking band in a room?), and I'd rather play in standard tuning - E or Eb, depending on what kind of music I'm playing. If I'm after a Slayer/Morbid Angel or a doomy vibe, I might tune down to Eb (or even half way between E and Eb, just to fuck with people's ears!); otherwise I'm always in E. But then, I've got a seven string if I want to play deeper, heavier stuff. Still standard tuning!

CA Weapon? Fuck them, UK Weapon all the way! Pretty shitty, to nick a band's name then claim copyright on it nearly a decade later. Seriously, though, are they any good?

Red is a good album, definitely, though not my kind of tone. I really appreciate the musicianship and strength of the composition, and would probably love it if I enjoyed what they were trying to express through it, but it's just not to my taste, unfortunately. Like most King Crimson, actually.. Not my kind of atmosphere in the end ; p Zappa, on the other hand, is one of my favourite musicians. Hot Rats and One Size Fits All are good albums for the more rock/metal oriented crowd, since they're mostly guitar work. I quite enjoy his circus crap like Freak Out and that other early one, but it's less "music" and more "theatre", as far as I experience it.