Blind Guardian - Tommyknockers
this is more or less why i've avoided early blind guardian for the most part, as it's exactly what i expected it to be; clusterfuck of half-baked euro speed/power ideas that shifts clumsily between aggression and cheese with meh vocals, overbearing drums and a lame chorus. pompey made me aware they have songs that are way better than this though. 4/10
Mortem - Moon of Cannibalism
demons descending from the moon is eligible for the theme i suppose, and mortem channel the spirit of '80s DM very well in general, but i echo the consensus that the drums are both shitty sounding and badly played. it's distracting, otherwise it'd be a 7 i think. 6/10
Hypocrisy - Abducted
i like that it's understated and to the point, ends exactly how it should too. main riff in the verses and the one in the middle are both good, but the guitars are a bit scandi-fied for my tastes and there's a riff toward the end that's too groove-oriented for the atmosphere. overall i'm dubious about the production but not outright rejecting it. vocals are the worst thing about it though, and he is TOTALLY saying 'i masturbated' wtf 6/10
Pagan Altar - The Time Lord
yeaaaahhhhhh, this one's nice. probably the most feel-good pagan altar ever got but still so wizened and earthy, with that lazy, soulful musicianship that barely any band in metal history can match. gives me a liberating feeling, can totally imagine i'm gliding casually across the astral plane listening to this. it's actually super accessible; you can imagine fans of hawkwind and UFO and, hell, even hendrix might love this shit just as much as metalheads. 7/10
Megadeth - Hangar 18
probably is a bit of an obvious choice (though it fits fine imo), and the last two minutes are worthless, otherwise i'd be rating it higher. 6/10
Scanner - Not Alone
totally glorious. big fucking grin on my face every time i hear it. 9/10
Deceased - The Triangle
a haunted sci-fi epic, almost lovecraftian in how palpably it conveys a sense of being dwarfed/threatened by unknowable, inhuman forces. great lyrics. 9/10
Oxiplegatz - Battle of Species
obviously this alf fanboy is gonna love the shit out of this. he's a fucking visionary, we'll catch up to this in 2040. such singular, vivid drama here. 9/10
Vektor - Outer Isolation
vektor fans are usually super annoying but i'm somewhere in between the crazy hype and crazy backlash. they don't really hang together for me or justify their length, but there are lots of cool ideas in there. i rather like this song, shame i gotta downrate it 'cause i already stated i was gonna punish songs that are merely space-themed. 6/10
Evergrey - The Shocking Truth
hi arg. i generally don't *hate* this aside from the vocals, the keyboard melody on the chorus is actually good. still the worst song on the list though. 3/10
Darkspace - Dark 1.1
i gave this album quite a few spins back when it was flavour of the month and i liked it, but it got old real fast. the problem may be that they do exactly what they say on the tin with no extra dimension, no surprises. i think they're pretty successful (though this isn't one of their better songs) and i always tend to like chug+synth combinations, but their overall purpose isn't very interesting to me which gives them a low ceiling. it's also a pretty uninventive pick that could fit into any space-related topic and isn't really specific to this one. 5/10
Ecocide - Alien Intervention
i can't imagine why this would be among the first to come to anyone's mind for this topic, there's nothing memorable about it. it's fine though, just totally generic. 5/10
Voivod - We Are Not Alone
well huh. i haven't even heard NOTHINGFACE (i know, i know), let alone post-NOTHINGFACE voivod, and i can confidently say i've never heard anything quite like this. it's pretty silly but in a good way. 7/10
Slough Feg - Vargr Theme/Confrontation
nearly all slough feg is around 7-8 territory for me, and this is one of their better songs. 8/10
Inquisition - Infinite Interstellar Genocide
one of the most reliably good active bands, though they rarely blow me away. anything that so blatantly worships early immortal is both cool and kinda limited in my book, especially given i rarely find their less immortaly parts too interesting. 6/10
