Priest's Power Metal Church

This week we're going to focus on a band everyone should know in Power Metal circles, German Heavy/Power Metal band Primal Fear! After lead vocalist Ralf Scheepers auditioned to be frontman for Judas Priest in the '90s and lost out to Tim Owens he decided to form a kickass band. Primal Fear are raw metal, chunky riffs, booming bass, soaring vocals and a brilliant heavy metal feel to them. Sounding similar to bands like Iron Savior, Judas Priest and Iced Earth I strongly recommend them to any new power metal comer. Any of their albums are worth getting bar perhaps New Religion which is their only shitter in my opinion. Jaws of Death is a great place to start as is Black Sun. I've given you some sample songs below to make you understand why these guys fucking rule! Give them a listen.

Lost Metal Gems...

So for the past few weeks I've been completely addicted to Manilla Road's album the Deluge. The addiction culminated last week when I listened to the album 7 consecutive times, never even thinking that I had any desire to listen to anything else at the time (because there was none). I've never encounter a situation like this. This got me to thinking of when I first heard Manilla Road after getting a copy of Crystal Logic and recalled that in that case as well, they were  all I could listen to for weeks straight. I may just be crazy but I really think that this band has been heinously overlook in the annals of metal and just want to make this post to celebrate a band that is just as obscure as the tales Mark Shelton and his band mates have weaved throughout the years:  Enjoy these gems and check them out their albums if you get a chance

The Road Of Kings (Open the Gates)

Astronomica (Open the Gates)

The Veils Of Negative Existence (Crystal Logic)

Shadow in the Black (The Deluge)

Children Of the Night (Mystification)

Mystification (Mystification)

Flaming Metal System (Crystal Logic)*

*: Flaming Metal System was previously unreleased and appears on the Crystal Logic reissue; it was not an original track on that album.

Phantasm's Black Metal Nightmares: Countess

The purpose of this series of posts is to make black metal bands that aren't as readily known as some of the more legendary counterparts within the genre, made more prevalent in your own personal realms of black metal. So, why not start with a band that has remained one of my favorites throughout the years: the Dutch legends, Countess.  Orlok has been spawning his own unique style of black metal, dubbed Orthodox Black Metal, since the early '90s.  The band quickly became the project of Orlok as he was the only consistent member throughout the years, and now remains the sole member of Countess. Reasons for Countess being overlooked could be due to many different factors; the relative obscurity of their albums due to their ultimate lack of distribution, the fact that a drum machine is used on all albums beyond the debut (with the exception of the Hell's Rock n Roll EP), or maybe just the fact that Orlok's music is just downright goofy sometimes. Regardless of the bands undeniable obscurity, the music remains strong and speaks for itself.  Do yourself a favor and check out some of the mp3s that can be found at the bands site by clicking on the link below and let your ears fall victim to the Return of the Horned One ! I think you'll be pleased. 

http://www.barbarianwrath.org/Countess/

Deceased...

So in my recent purchases and listenings, I finally obtained a Deceased album. I've know about the band for awhile now since  first hearing their cover of Mercyful Fate's "Doomed By the Living Dead" on a MF tribute cd. The cover impressed me immediately but for whatever reason I never thought to get anything from the band: until now. A few weeks ago I obtained a copy of As the Weird Travel On and upon listening to the album, I instantly became a Deceased fanatic and ordered most of their catalog. Hopefully, their scheduled upcoming album will continue the horror and  heavy metal inspired godliness that King Fowley and the band are known for. Take some time to check them out if your not familiar with them: 

Elly's Dementia

The Silent Creature

Dark Chilling Heartbeat

Mandatory Metallica Saturday

Ok it's Sunday but it was only Saturday a few hours ago for me lol. On behalf of Death here is your weekly dose of Metallica:



Metallica \m/

Rainbow

Check Rising out, Ritchie Blackmore, Dio, Cozy Powell, Jimmy Bain, Tony Carey bring us this killer album, somehow Ritchie was revitalised after leaving Purple and he came out with three kick arse albums, Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, Rising and Long Live Rock 'n' Roll.

Rising is an album you need to listen to before you die:

Classics Part Three: Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin are the third band of the big three who began it all. Compared to Sabbath and Purple, Zep were a bit more on the folky side of things, with lyrics ranging from LOTR to classic English folk songs. Led Zeppelin got their name from a line by John Entwistle the bassist from The Who (something to do with a possible formation of a super group involving Keith Moon, John Entwistle, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck going down like a lead zeppelin).

Led Zep aren’t as heavy as either Purple or Sabbath but they definitely hold their own, like being banned for life from the Tokyo Hilton, John Bonham riding motorcycles through hotel corridors etc etc, but along with the excess of rock they had a string of absolute classic albums:

It was around this time that tragedy struck Zep, Robert Plant was in a car accident and he broke his ankle, and his wife Maureen almost died and Jimmy Page’s heroin addiction was starting to become apparent.. Zep had a bit of time off and wrote Presence:

To me that’s when the magic began to dwindle and the shit really started to hit the fan, it was rumored that Jimmy Page was dabbling in the occult, he had even bought Aleister Crowleys castle in Scotland (I think) and weird shit started happening, well, crazy things, Robert Plants son Karac died of a stomach infection at age 7 (All My Love is dedicated to him) Jimmy Page broke is ring finger and couldn’t play guitar and there were more weird things that happened but I can’t quite remember them all .

John Bonham died September 25th 1980 and that effectively ended Led Zeppelin, they had one album post Bonham, CODA, but I am not even going to post that.

Out of the three, Led Zep, Sabbath and Purple they definitely my least favourite, they have some utterly brilliant songs but they just don’t do it for me the way the other do. Plant is easily my favourite vocalist and that scream of his on Immigrant Song gives me chills. Bonzo is a great drummer but for me both Bill Ward and Ian Paice do a better job. Jimmy Page is a genius on guitar some of the things he did on guitar blow my mind.

Those slight negatives aside, Led Zep still row my boat and Led Zeppelin III is an all time favourite for me as well.

Classics Part Two: Deep Purple

Well I thought since I posted about Black Sabbath I might as well post about another influential band that help start the monster that is metal, Deep Purple.

Deep Purple hold a special place in my heart as they are one of the earliest of my metal discoveries, thanks to my Dad. He bought me Machine Head for me on Christmas and I remember listening to Highway Star with him.

Deep Purple had some amazingly talented musicians, Jon Lord on keyboards, his solo’s sound like they are played on a guitar, Ritchie Blackmore, a legendary guitarist, Ian Paice, a brilliant drummer, Roger Glover, a godly bassist and Ian Gillian who sounds like some sort of absolute god on vocals, I love his voice.

Deep Purple went through a number of line up changes and Mark II is considered the classic line up, they put out the all the classic albums:

Child in Time is one of my all time favourite songs and Machine Head is easily my favourite album, every song is killer.

Deep Purple did the whole Symphonic Orchestra some 29 years before Metallica thought of the idea, I’ve never heard it but I do plan on buying a copy very soon:

To me Deep Purple are a bit more refined than Zep or Sabbath, a bit more gentlemanly if you catch my drift. Anyway no one should be without at least one Purple album even if it is a best of.

Classics Part One: Black Sabbath

Ahhhhhh Sabbath, the Godfathers of all things heavy and of course all things Metal \m/. It amazes me every time I play a Sabbath song or album how relevant they still are today, sure some of their songs sound dated but everything else sounds as if it could have been recorded yesterday.

Pretty much every Metal band in existence owes something to Black Sabbath, their influence can be felt every where.

I could hear Paranoid every single day and never tire of it. I remember the first time I heard Black Sabbath, it was coming home from a school trip and this guy put Self-Titled on the bus stereo, and skipped to The Wizard, I was spellbound and I have been a fan ever since.

I love the simplicity of the album covers and the fact that you put an album on you can seem to never want to turn it off:

I would post albums after Sabotage but they just don’t have the same magic.

More hails to the Queen!

The sheer strength of this woman's voice
blows my mind every time!

Doro you Rule my Ruins \m/


I rule the Ruins



Sign of Satan



Hateful Guy



Earth Shaker Rock

All hail to the Queen of Metal!

Doro Pesch has been in the metal game since 1983,
debuting in the Heavy Metal band WARLOCK and
still going strong in her self titled band DORO.

Bow down men, to your undisputed Mother Of Metal!