Blitzkrieg - The Mists of Avalon [1998]
I remembered reading some time ago that their 90s stuff was overlooked/underrated but never put much effort in exploring that, felt this was a good opportunity (I'll probably do a 90s Candlemass or Chastain album or something next). The most interesting parts were in the opening twenty minute "suite" thing, although it wasn't particularly interesting because of that alone. A few strong moments that conjure that kind of arcane 80s trad/power mood, but a lot of the stuff is just a little too soft and plain kind of like Maiden's 2000s stuff. Brian Ross sounds better today than he did nearly 20 years ago on this album. 5/10 but that would probably go down on subsequent listens because this album is pretty damn long too.
Conception - Flow [1997]
I had high expectations for their earlier albums, which were promptly destroyed by an excess of crappy groove metal riffs, wimpy production and performance, and a bit of prog cheese. People would sometimes say "Well OK, but Flow is totally different, it's got all these keys and shit and sounds so futuristic and shit man". Verdict: still poor groove metal, with a couple of poppier songs in the middle that manage to fit alright. 3/10.
Elvaron - Mages Battle [1997]
Cleaning out my wishlist. Described elsewhere as progressive/thrash metal, this instead a pretty dull mixture of trad and thrash metal. I mean, it has potential, it's got a consistent medieval fantasy theme and the vocalist switches between vaguely harsh chanted styles to a weak-if-fitting power metal style, but the riffing is way too generic. Foredoomed is a pretty good song though. I like it when they throw in those NWOBHM harmonies, even if those are generic too. I dunno, I guess it's like a really budget version of Bifrost or something. People that don't care about riffs might enjoy this (probably not). 4/10.
