A few random thoughts from a drunken Zach.
*cue gigantic swig of beer*
I am listening to Bloodbound for the first time ever. Nosferatu, released in 2006. I remember seeing the schtick in all the mags, a power metal band that dressed black metal and shit. It was cute, but I never bothered listening, even though I fucking LOVE Urban's work in Tad Morose. Now, I find myself loving Nosferatu (the album). It's full of catchy choruses, solid power metal riffs, it's pretty generic but it's so fucking fun. Avantasia is still this decade's best power metal album (don't worry! Nightfall in Middle Earth is '98!), but Bloodbound just got it right. it's fun, it's cheesy, it's catchy and anyone who likes heavy metal should check it out.
I recently was looking through old Terrorizer mags circa 1999 and saw a ton of ads for bands I've never heard of. Research showed that they were mainly bands who released a single album back in '98 as one of Metal Blade or Candlelight's third tier bands... the ones no one really gives a shit about. The only thing my search yielded was the following bits:
-A Canorous Quintet is quite good, as is most No Fashion Records material. They did Dissection's first two records guys... c'mon, get with it. And check out Ophthalamia.
-Absurdus apparently doesn't exist on the internet...
-And similarly, Prophanity's only album exists on the internet, but with track 3 missing. What the fuck...
Avanatasia (The Metal Opera pt. 1) is, as mentioned earlier in this post, the decade's best power metal album. I defy anyone to provide a better example.
Mercyful Fate never put out a bad album. Ever. Sure, bad songs, but not a bad album. Period.
Melodic vocals are ALWAYS better than harsh, death, black, extreme, thrash, other vocals. But those other styles still fucking rule when used properly.
Diversity in music is what makes metal special to a lot of us. You can have metal bands playing jazz, blues, prog rock, tribal beats, classical, folk... almost every world region has a metal band to represent them, almost every historical topic has been covered, often times by multiple views.
I'm rambling. Drinking does that. Bloodbound is still rad, don't know if their other albums are shit or not, but since this is so rad they probably are. I'll report back later.
Oh, and final thought: I'm going to listen to Massacre's album Promise. Some of you will be horrified by this, others won't understand the reference.
