Recommend me some quality Metal

Anytime the voice of God puts out an album, I’ll be there.

One of the most recent concept album I have listened to, and one I enjoyed a lot was Vessels by Be’lakor. More of an atmospheric album and tells the story about the flow of energy, beginning with nuclear fusion in the sun (yes, a song about fusion) all the way through plant life (via photosynthesis) and the diversity of life, with the culmination being this track here that’s worth a listen.

The writing on the final track felt a bit forced at times, but nonetheless a splendid piece of music that is a veritable journey.

Thinking of melodic death metal and concept albums, for some reason, Insomnium’s Winters Gate album never quite clicked with me. I like Insomnium a lot, that album won a lot of praise, yet it never really worked with me.

Also, +1 to Mastodon’s Leviathan album. It was probably the album that moved me onto listening to more metal and less progressive rock.

Which in turn reminds me of one of my favorite Vintersorg tracks, “Cosmic Genesis” (and also the entire Ayreon discography, but I’ll let @craigm handle that!):

This description reminds me of Nightwish’s Endless Forms Most Beautiful from a couple of years ago, which also deals with the development and diversity of life. Don’t think they have any fusion lyrics, though.

That’s slowly grown to be my favorite Nightwish record, overtaking Wishmaster, much to my surprise.

So the new Therion album, a massive metal opera called Beloved Antichrist, is out, and it’s absolutely ridiculous. Guess I know what I’m gonna spend the next 3 hours doing, though. . .

Three hours and two minutes! I won’t get through it all today, but it’ll get a full playthrough soon.

This is… crazy.

Atlas Moth has something new. I didn’t know anything about them, but one of my favorite hard rock bands, Royal Thunder, is opening up for them here in NC next week. . .

Also, new Arkona launched last month! wtf! How did I miss this??

Additionally, Primordial has a new album coming out soon. Seems like Nemtheanga’s verging back toward a cleaner vocal style and the music is going full on dirge at a few points. . . AKA my preferred Primordial combo. Loving the sound so far.

Looove Primordial though not so much the last two albums. Still, this does sound great - keen!

Good stuff. Need to check out their earlier albums as I noticed the singer also has a Bathory tribute band.

Sabaton tomorrow night and Sanctuary sans-Warrel next week. Think I will stick around for a song or two to check out the new Iced Earth singer, but not the biggest fan since Barlow left.

I did see quite the killer lineup coming in September. Dark Tranquility/Amorphis co-headline with Moonspell and Omnium Gatherum opening.

The Gathering Wilderness and To The Nameless Dead are my personal faves, even to this day. “Sing to the Slaves” is epic as fuck.

I am definitely hitting up the Sabaton tour when it comes to NC, and most likely the Iced Earth/Sanctuary tour as well. Stu Block is actually doing really well with IE, so I think it’s worth checking em out. Ironically, the first time I ever heard him sing, he was opening for them with his other band, Into Eternity (who I like quite a bit).

In addition, doing the big Nightwish tour and Septicflesh/Xael/Dark Funeral/Vesterian. … March is an insane month for shows!!!

My friend and I are SUPER pumped for this. I’ve seen all of these guys but OG before and loved all their sets. Amorphis were amazing, even if I kinda prefer the previous vocalist and the jazzier style they experimented with in the early 2000s. But the new stuff is still great. I was a little let down by Moonspell when I saw em a year or two ago, as the vocalist seemed SUPER drunk and out of it, which sucks, cuz I really loe their music. 1755, their album from last year, was excellent.

Yeah The Gathering Wilderness is number one for me, part of their ‘big three’ including Spirit the Earth Aflame and Storm Before Calm.

To The Nameless Dead is the ‘commercial breakout’ album, but I love it too. :)

Interesting. I quite like it.

You successfully got my attention. Listening to it now.

Damn it. Adding it to my list.

Holy cripes, you guys. You’re overwhelming me. I came here to catch up, and once again, I have enough material to break my budget, depending on how much of this stuff I end up buying. And my budget is pretty small this month, so I’ll need to limit myself to one album. I’m only up to post #1699 now, and I’m going to drop out now until I get caught up to this point. Thanks everyone for the recommendations.

I just recently got into Mastodon, based on their most recent album, which I bought. Which then led me to buy “Once More 'Round The Sun”, which I could not resist because of the world’s most epic cat adventure video that accompanied the song “Asleep In The Deep”.

Agreed on Primordial. I can take or leave their early stuff, but everything from The Gathering Wilderness on has been fantastic.

And yeah, Dark Tranquility with Omnium Gatherum would be enough to get me to that show, even without the others.

Or, if you don’t mind an alternative suggestion, spend that album cost on a month of streaming service subscription and listen to them all! Even if your 'net connection is terrible, with something like Spotify you can go to your local library or Starbucks or whatever and download a bunch of stuff locally to listen to offline.

Is this the best metal album of February? Very well could be! :)

Necrophobic - Mark of the Necrogram

February 2018 Albums of the Month

For most of the month this seemed like a strong crop for power metal but disappointing for everything else. Thankfully, 2/23 brought astoundingly good new albums from Usurpress and Necrophobic, so the balance was restored.

Also, I got tired of trying to pick a single winner, and felt like it was obscuring things, so going forward, I’m switching to metal-based classification categories. Steel for albums I loved and expect to be considering among the best of the year, Iron for albums I liked a lot and expect to revisit in the future, and Bronze for albums I enjoyed and found to be worth checking out, but didn’t make as strong of an impression.

Also also, I should have ranked Arch Echo higher in last month’s post, since it’s the album I’ve come back to most this month.

Steel:

  • Angra - ØMNI
  • Usurpress - Interregnum
  • Necrophobic - Mark of the Necrogram



Iron:

  • Visigoth - Conquerer’s Oath
  • Frozen Crown - The Fallen King
  • Merlin - The Wizard
  • Novareign - Legends
  • Harakiri for the Sky - Arson
  • Thaurorod - The Coast of Gold





Bronze:

  • Victorius - Dinosaur Warfare: Legend of the Power Saurus
  • The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir
  • Armored Dawn - Barbarians in Black
  • Dream Ocean - Lost Love Symphony
  • Erdve - Vaitojimas
  • Horizon Ablaze - The Weight of a Thousand Suns
  • Tengger Cavalry - Cian Bi
  • Battlesoul - Sunward and Skyward








Don’t know if you listened to these, but think they’re worth a mention. Both also released on the 23rd. :)

Apostle Of Solitude - From Gold to Ash (doom)

Bhleg - Solarmegin (folk/black)