The Official Hard Rock / Classic Metal Music Discussion and Memorabilia Thread!

[jjrock88]

And I can see meeting your tape dealer in a dark back alley and him taking tapes out of his black trenchcoat and hooking you up lol

[wolfking]

Both the Narnia and Bulletrain I found really excellent.

The Hammers of Misfortune was something different and I really like the singers voice.

And damn, Disharmonic Fields was really solid.  Reminds me of heavy solo Dickinson stuff, really good.

[wolfking]

Wow, that Eleventh Hour was excellent.  I know the little bloke could sing alright, but he sounds wonderful here.  New project;

Allen/Lande/DelVicchio??

[jingle.boy]

I'm game for whatever you can offer Brent. Already can't wait for the next one!

Ditto.

Now that I've revisited those few bands, all (except Bulletrain) made the list to check the full album out - which makes 31 new bands/albums to spin from 2016.    I'm a glutton for sonic "punishment".

If anyone hasn't discovered enough new bands/albums, I'll share those that made my Top 43 that I don’t remember showing up on either podcast (that I haven't already mentioned):

#7. Utopia / Mood Changes - complex/technical prog-metal that doesn't sound like Dream Theater.  Some very crunchy riffs here. 
#14. Heaven Below / Good Morning Apocalypse - A concept album from from the Sunset Strip. Excellent glam metal.  Play the first track - give it a shot Brent, each track does stand on it's own very well (imo).
#23. Enbound / Blackened Heart.  This didn't show up?  Seriously?  Ruslan would not be happy with you.
#25. Noveria / Forsaken.  If Symphony X had a little brother.
#31. Nemesea / Uprise.  Female led metal that lands nicely in a place somewhere between operatic and metal.
#34. Herman Frank / The Devil Rides Out.  Really stunned this one didn’t make the cut.  Mostly balls out metal, with a touch of ‘power’. 
#37. Thunderstone / Apocalypse Again.  Kept getting better with every listen.  I really dig Pasi on the mic
#39. Crystal Palace / Dawn of Eternity - More prog than metal here.  Very much in the vein of Subsignal/Sieges Even/Speaking to Stones
#40. Fatal Destiny / Palindromia - 33 min EP, but filled with lots of great prog-metal, and diverse; production is a little lacking.
#42. Corona Skies / Fragments of Reality - another shorty (only 42 mins).  Lots of diversity in this one… pop, jazz, technical … but all prog goodness.
#43. Derdian / Revolution.  Just missed my “A” (80%) ranking. High quality power metal with compilation vocalists (incl Apollo, Henning Basse, DC Cooper, Fabio, and Ralf); some great; some just very good.

I'm just looking out for everyone's best interests - and by "best interests", I mean the worst interests for your bank account.   

Anyone else got any albums that Brent failed to offer for our consideration?

[bl5150]

I do really like the Heaven Below Chad...........discovered it after it was too late for the podcast (marked it "2017" for list purposes).  At a guess it would've landed in the 20's somewhere.

The Enbound I thought was solid - all good tracks but nothing stood out to me.

[Bolsters]

The only one of those I know is Thunderstone. I began warming up to it the more I listened, but I don't really rate it that highly. Pasi is great as always though.

[bl5150]

Peter Criss is doing some stuff in Melbourne shortly..........apparently his last ever Australian appearance.    Dinner and show $695 or double that if you want a table near the great man.   

Also doing some sort of Kiss Konvention but the detail of what's on show are very light on.   Apparently Bruce Kulick will be there too.   I doubt I'll bother (had thought of taking Ben until I saw the prices) - seems like a last ditch cash in.    Costs $35 to get in and $15 to reserve a spot in the line to get things signed at $65 per item  (US dollars please   )

[BlobVanDam]

Peter Criss should be paying us to see him.
I heard about the convention, and laughed when I found out Criss would be there. Not like he has anything else going. Kulick would be cool though. Those prices aren't too out there for a convention in this country, although $15 to stand in line seems silly. What about photo ops though?

[bl5150]

It's actually a 2 day thing and more like $75/day.   Same deal for photos as for signing - pay for a spot in the line and then $65 (AUD$85) for a pro photo.

Very little info about as to what's on display - he's charging exhibitors to have stalls there so no doubt there'll be the usual guys flogging air brush shirts and so on.   I have my doubts as to the quality of what will be there as KISS themselves don't seem involved.

[BlobVanDam]

Why would you pay for a spot in line when you're already paying to get a photo? This makes no sense!
Aside from that, that photo price is about what you'd pay at a regular convention for a higher end guest. Peter Criss ain't worth half that though.
I'd want the convention to have more than that to justify the cost though. I know there are some bands playing, but nobody I've even heard of. I think it's going to be pretty scrappy.

[bl5150]

The main band is Four By Fate who aren't bad - I had them in a recent podcast.   They're doing a show and clinics.   Tod Howarth on vox/guitar (ex Frehley's Comet)......he's good and also Rob Affuso (ex-Skid Row) on drums.

[BlobVanDam]

Yeah, I saw the poster for it. Never heard of this band though, or any of their music. I'm also behind on the most recent podcasts!

[Podaar]

It took me a couple of days to get back to the podcast. I wasn't really feeling it during the top 20 until we got to Chris Green.

[Podaar]

Okay, all finished up now.

The top five were stupendous! Thanks so much to you and your wee lad.

[jjrock88]

Talking about Kiss, the reunion rumors don't seem to stop and I see Ace feeding the rumors more and more.  I don't hear much about Peter, but I could imagine he is interested in another big payday too.

[Lowdz]

Talking about Kiss, the reunion rumors don't seem to stop and I see Ace feeding the rumors more and more.  I don't hear much about Peter, but I could imagine he is interested in another big payday too.

Ace appears to have straightened himself out in the last few years. Peter will always be a prick, and couldn't physically play on the tour years ago. He'd have no chance now.

[jjrock88]

If they were going to do any kind of a reunion tour, I could only see it having to include Ace and Paul; wouldn't seem right just to bring in Ace.  But Ace definitely has straightened himself up and I'm sure he would do just fine.  I agree with Paul that Criss wouldn't cut it most likely.

[TAC]

Unless Tommy Thayer leaves of his own accord, I don't see it happening.

[TAC]

First album I'm listening to in full from Brent's Best of 2016 countdown is Disharmonic Fields' Devil's Weapon Shot.

This is an awesome album, Brent!

[gazinwales]

I reckon there is more chance of Bruce Kullick being the next Kiss guitarist than Ace.

[BlobVanDam]

I reckon there is more chance of Bruce Kullick being the next Kiss guitarist than Ace.

I'd prefer that anyway.

[Lowdz]

First album I'm listening to in full from Brent's Best of 2016 countdown is Disharmonic Fields' Devil's Weapon Shot.

This is an awesome album, Brent!

That was ok but it lead me to Lunar Shadow on YouTube and I liked that a lot. Very Candlemass crossed with power metal.
I'm enjoying the Meshiaak too 😀🤘

[wolfking]

Fuck, I've never really liked Motley Crue or checked out anything the guys in the band have done, but that Sixx AM was fucking awesome.  Certainly one I have to check out, probably my fav song on this countdown so far.

[wolfking]

The Wicked Maraya was fucking tasty.

[jingle.boy]

I'm four (and a half) albums in so far:

Binary Creed / A Battle Won - holy fuck that was melt my ears awesome!!    
Symphonity / King of Persia - normally, I can only take Herbie's voice in short bursts.  But he was quite diverse here.
Wicked Maraya / Lifetime in Hell - definitely an old-school metal vibe here.  Had some Metallica-esque moments.
Danger Angel / All The King's Horses - despite some pop-synth moments, this too melted my ears after they recovered from Binary Creed.  The title track could be top-5 of the year for me. 
Eleventh Hour / Memory of A Lifetime Journey - I'm currently 1/2 way thru this one, and it's fucking brilliant.  Tremendous balance between heavy and light.

I'm feeling many purchases coming on.

[Lowdz]

Not feeling the Wicked Maraya at all. Edit -actually it is starting to grow. Wasn't into the singer at first but it's getting better. In fact I was in a shitty mood yesterday and that probably meant I didn't give them much of a chance.

The last Binary Creed was pretty good so not sure how I missed this one.

[Lowdz]

Liking the Symphonity too.

[TAC]

Fuck, I've never really liked Motley Crue or checked out anything the guys in the band have done, but that Sixx AM was fucking awesome.  Certainly one I have to check out, probably my fav song on this countdown so far.

Huh, I don't even remember Sixx AM being in the countdown.

EDIT: Just dloaded the tracklist. I see it, which is weird because Megadeth came right after it, and I didn't remember hearing them either. I must've blacked out from too much metal during that portion.

Binary Creed / A Battle Won - holy fuck that was melt my ears awesome!!    
 

This is on today's agenda.

[TAC]

Going to give Disharmonic Fields an edge over Binary Creed...

...onto Mercury Falling!

[bl5150]

If you like Mercury Falling Tim make sure you check out the 2012 album..................try Queen Of Pain as a sampler 

[TAC]

I was just done with Art Of War, when I was about to call it quits on this one....but I jumped ahead to the Introspection Suite. Liking this better than the first half of the album.

[bl5150]

Yeah...........that's why I chose King For One Day as it's the start of my favourite half of the album (and was reasonably short ).  As I mentioned in the show the Into The Void album is clearly their best overall effort IMO.

[TAC]

The Mercury Falling was like listening to two completely different albums.



Onto Handful Of Rain now!

[TAC]

Randy Rhoads died 35 years ago today. Damn.

[jjrock88]

I wonder how the Ozzy albums would have played out if Randy was still his guitarist.

That Tribute live album is fantastic.