Pandemic finds and rediscoveries

[Random Axe]

This is actually a part 2 of my previous Covid thread far below. I've been working this entire time but have really been going back and pulling stuff off the shelves I hadn't listened to in some case for more than a decade. I've also been buying a lot of albums I'd not heard along the way and some other, obscure bands I'd never heard of.

Majestic/Time Requiem/Space Odyssey - The common denominator here is Richard Andersson, and he's a pretty brilliant keysman. There's a lot of keyboard masturbation on these but underneath is some pretty solid melodic metal with some good vocalists. I'm not all the way through these but Apollo and Edman are among those vocalists and sound very good.

Tragodia - This is a melodic prog band from Italy I'd never heard of prior to May. They have such a great interplay between guitar and keys and a fantastic vocalist. He's fairly accented, and before recently I'd have never paid attention since I'm a vocal snob. This is too good and catchy and melodic to ignore. I think the best description I can think of is a tamed and toned down Beast In Black. The singers have a similar range and use keys the same way.

Supreme Majesty - Pretty damn good melodic metal from Sweden that I dismissed as generic based on the name. There's some really good stuff on these albums and a few misses. Overall I'm happy to have found them again.

Tad Morose - I was never a huge fan as I really never had any exposure to them. I bought a compilation disc as well as Modus Vivendi. Nice. I'll need to listen further to see if it makes its way into my great category but yeah, this is very tasty so far.

Mark Boals - Here's where I really struck gold. I only knew him from Trilogy and his Ring of Fire albums. Both bands I was lukewarm at best on and just never did seek out anything with him on it. Fast forward a couple of decades and I'm buying up a bunch of his albums. I'm digging his work with Royal Hunt, Iron Mask, Ark Storm, Article, Shining Black and my favorite of his The Codex.

Damnation Angels - At the time I thought of them only as a Kamelot bootleg band. Now that Roy has been out of the band for ten years I truly miss that sound, and this fills in that gap for the most part. PelleK has a unique delivery but he at least has character to his voice. I'm digging both albums and am looking forward to the new one even thought its a different vocalist.

Leviathan - I'd always liked Riddles but hadn't listened to anything else by them. I pretty much said fuck it and bought the entire catalog from them. These are hit and miss but I'm surprised there isn't more talk about them in the US prog community. They have some fantastic stuff going on some of these discs.

Dire Peril - Now this is some high energy metal. They are taking a page or two from Star One with the sci-fi film themes but there's a lot of awesome happening here. Some thrashy Annihilator elements, Iced Earth riffage, soaring choruses. There's something for everyone here.

Within Silence - A really cool band out of Slovakia of all places. They are a Christian metal band that sounds like a mix between Theocracy and Ascendia. Really melodic stuff here.

Time Machine - As mentioned above I never paid much attention to this band because I hated the accent this singer has, I just couldn't understand him. Now going back and listening it's pretty damn great. I've only heard Evil so far in its entirety. I like!

Other bands I don't have an opinion yet are:

Heart of Sun
Domain
Dignity
Rising Faith

[Nos]

Tad Morose - I was never a huge fan as I really never had any exposure to them. I bought a compilation disc as well as Modus Vivendi. Nice. I'll need to listen further to see if it makes its way into my great category but yeah, this is very tasty so far.

I'm not a huge fan either, but I do think "Matters Of The Dark" is really good, perhaps because it's a bit more straight-forward.

The album made by Trail Of Murder, which was a continuation in essence, is also pretty great. A shame Urban split from them too.

[GaetanL]

Tad Morose - I was never a huge fan as I really never had any exposure to them. I bought a compilation disc as well as Modus Vivendi. Nice. I'll need to listen further to see if it makes its way into my great category but yeah, this is very tasty so far.

"Sender Of Thoughts" is a classic prog metal album! I still love it! The title track is often in my playlist when I listen to music song by song! My second favorite album from them is the first one "Leaving The Past Behind". I don't care much for any album after "A Mended Rhyme".

[introclaus]

Tad Morose - I was never a huge fan as I really never had any exposure to them. I bought a compilation disc as well as Modus Vivendi. Nice. I'll need to listen further to see if it makes its way into my great category but yeah, this is very tasty so far.

"Sender Of Thoughts" is a classic prog metal album! I still love it! The title track is often in my playlist when I listen to music song by song! My second favorite album from them is the first one "Leaving The Past Behind". I don't care much for any album after "A Mended Rhyme".

Completely agreed!!! The first two (actually three if you count the Paradigm EP) were their best. I have come to appreciate the first few with Urban but nowhere near liking them as much as the Krille-era.

[introclaus]

This is actually a part 2 of my previous Covid thread far below. I've been working this entire time but have really been going back and pulling stuff off the shelves I hadn't listened to in some case for more than a decade. I've also been buying a lot of albums I'd not heard along the way and some other, obscure bands I'd never heard of.

Majestic/Time Requiem/Space Odyssey - The common denominator here is Richard Andersson, and he's a pretty brilliant keysman. There's a lot of keyboard masturbation on these but underneath is some pretty solid melodic metal with some good vocalists. I'm not all the way through these but Apollo and Edman are among those vocalists and sound very good.

Tragodia - This is a melodic prog band from Italy I'd never heard of prior to May. They have such a great interplay between guitar and keys and a fantastic vocalist. He's fairly accented, and before recently I'd have never paid attention since I'm a vocal snob. This is too good and catchy and melodic to ignore. I think the best description I can think of is a tamed and toned down Beast In Black. The singers have a similar range and use keys the same way.

Supreme Majesty - Pretty damn good melodic metal from Sweden that I dismissed as generic based on the name. There's some really good stuff on these albums and a few misses. Overall I'm happy to have found them again.

Tad Morose - I was never a huge fan as I really never had any exposure to them. I bought a compilation disc as well as Modus Vivendi. Nice. I'll need to listen further to see if it makes its way into my great category but yeah, this is very tasty so far.

Mark Boals - Here's where I really struck gold. I only knew him from Trilogy and his Ring of Fire albums. Both bands I was lukewarm at best on and just never did seek out anything with him on it. Fast forward a couple of decades and I'm buying up a bunch of his albums. I'm digging his work with Royal Hunt, Iron Mask, Ark Storm, Article, Shining Black and my favorite of his The Codex.

Damnation Angels - At the time I thought of them only as a Kamelot bootleg band. Now that Roy has been out of the band for ten years I truly miss that sound, and this fills in that gap for the most part. PelleK has a unique delivery but he at least has character to his voice. I'm digging both albums and am looking forward to the new one even thought its a different vocalist.

Leviathan - I'd always liked Riddles but hadn't listened to anything else by them. I pretty much said fuck it and bought the entire catalog from them. These are hit and miss but I'm surprised there isn't more talk about them in the US prog community. They have some fantastic stuff going on some of these discs.

Dire Peril - Now this is some high energy metal. They are taking a page or two from Star One with the sci-fi film themes but there's a lot of awesome happening here. Some thrashy Annihilator elements, Iced Earth riffage, soaring choruses. There's something for everyone here.

Within Silence - A really cool band out of Slovakia of all places. They are a Christian metal band that sounds like a mix between Theocracy and Ascendia. Really melodic stuff here.

Time Machine - As mentioned above I never paid much attention to this band because I hated the accent this singer has, I just couldn't understand him. Now going back and listening it's pretty damn great. I've only heard Evil so far in its entirety. I like!

Other bands I don't have an opinion yet are:

Heart of Sun
Domain
Dignity
Rising Faith

Great post!!!

Majestic: love both albums
Time Requiem: all great, but the two (+live album) with Apollo are the best
Space Odyssey: meh ... I am a huge Nils Patrik fan but the music here leaves me cold (like Lions Share)

Supreme Majesty: ultimate cheesy power metal but very “fun” for that very reason. I have first three albums of theirs but didn’t follow them after that so don’t know if they continued?

Tad Morose: see post above

Mark Boals: such a talented singer but often joining weird ass second / third rate bands. His stuff with MALMSTEEN and Royal Hunt are the best but I do appreciate the Ring of Fire discs as well.

Damnation Angels: well, I’m biased - love it!

Leviathan: the debut (deeper secrets...) is an underrated classic in US power metal if you ask me. Of their prog albums I really only love Riddles but do like songs here and there on the other ones.

Time Machine: one of my absolute favorite prog metal bands of all time. Evil is a good starting point (and probably has the vocalist least “offensive” in terms of accent). My fave is and will always be Act II Galileo - masterpiece of progressive metal goodness!

[sabatar]

I discovered Keor.

[David D]

I have always loved the Urban ...Tad Morose discs. His voice is just very distinctive and like an extra instrument in any band. I also recommend Trail of Murder, but he was also great on the Bloodbound album he was on.

Damnation Angels are a much more progressive and complex Kamelot in my opinion. I love both, but find myself going back to Damnation Angels more and being amazed every time. I am excited to hear there is a new cd coming out, I had thought they had split up completely.

I agree on Time Machine the singers accent, and just the mix of the vocals being more background and quiet always bugs me, but there music writing talent is obvious and despite the vocal issues, I go back every few years and enjoy them.

I will have to check out Dire Peril and Within Silence. Both sound like my kind of thing....

thanks Scott!!!

[Nos]

I have always loved the Urban.... he was also great on the Bloodbound album he was on.

He was on two of them, and they're both great, albeit completely different. The first one is a total Iron Maiden clone, while "Tabula Rasa" still sounds fresh and modern a decade later. All of the modern/heavy power metal bands are still catching up to that Soilwork meets power metal combination.

[Psychotic Symphony]

Good post! Want some more?

If you liked Dire Peril (especially their latest album) do try Judicator (same vocalist but his main band), Unleash The Archers (Apex album), and Helion Prime (first album). All of which are supreme excellence of the new wave of american power metal.

[introclaus]

Good post! Want some more?

If you liked Dire Peril (especially their latest album) do try Judicator (same vocalist but his main band), Unleash The Archers (Apex album), and Helion Prime (first album). All of which are supreme excellence of the new wave of american power metal.

All 3 songs released from new Judicator so far are awesome. Really looking forward to this one.

[Sir Exar Kun]

Time Machine - As mentioned above I never paid much attention to this band because I hated the accent this singer has, I just couldn't understand him. Now going back and listening it's pretty damn great. I've only heard Evil so far in its entirety. I like!

Your entire list is really solid, but alas I don't have time to reply to all the different bands called out. Tad Morose, Richard Anderssons projects, Leviathan, Supreme Majesty.... It's like a walk down memory lane.

I do highlight Time Machine, as if you haven't heard it yet you MUST check out "Eternity Ends", as I think that's their high water mark. "Evil" was a slightly more focused / compressed version, whereas I thought Eternity really was more ambitious. Technically, if I recall, I thought those were supposed to be parts I and II of a trilogy, and the third part never materialized?

[BC]

Dire Peril popped up on my radar when I found out they had covered the theme song from the 1986 Transformers movie. Another guy on this list, Mark Boals, also fronts Machine Regime, formerly NRG, who also contributed a song to the ‘86 movie, Instruments of Destruction, which was released as a digital single in ‘16.

[introclaus]

This week I rediscovered a few albums I hadn't listened to in a while ...

Native Construct - Quiet World
A one-off album from a band that decided to call it quits and thus won't be bringing us anymore proggy goodness. These guys were all Berklee musicians who decided to create a band based in the metal genre, but with influences from all over, making this album a very interesting blend of progressive metal, metal core, pop, black, death and fusion ... it's kind of all over the place but never really looses focus. For those who don't know the band, think Dream Theater, Cynic, BTBAM, Queen, Gentle Giant, and some Broadway musical stuff just for fun.
Full album stream: https://youtu.be/G808sLEx4bQ

Sigh - In Somniphobia
If Native Construct were pushing the genre-boundaries, it's nothing compared to Japan's avantgarde masters in Sigh, who with a b(l)ackbone in black metal have created a string of highly unique albums that you either love or hate. To me, "In Somniphobia" is their masterpiece as it unites all their influences with an unprecendented melodic approach. This is what would happen if Dimmu Borgir, Symphony X, King Diamond, Venom, Malmsteen and Mr. Bungle had a very evil baby - it's over-the-top in every single way, and I love it.
Full album stream: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... bIAK4w1pMy

Antimatter - Leaving Eden
This is a band I play very frequently, but mostly their latest 2 albums, so I decided to pull out of one their older ones ("Leaving Eden" from 2007). Musically it's the typical laid back prog/dark rock you'll expect from this band - quite a lot of Anathema influences (originally the band was a project involving Duncan Patterson from Anathema, but at this album he had already left). I don't really want to call the band a doom band, as they are much more than just that, but they share the same dark/slow-brooding foundation. It's just music that hits me right there in that sweet spot ...
Full album stream: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... F3BD740C51