Themed Mixtape Game

[Phylactery]

I was surprised that no country didn't pick something from With Fear (Primal Breath maybe?) for the nature theme.

"The Break of Autumn" or "Primal Breath" would have got a 10 from me.

He was too busy trolling people with that Branikald track though haha. I actually liked it, but I can't agree that it's up there with "Beyond all Horizons" and "Det Som Engang Var" like he said.

 

[Slayed Necros]

No death metal. Almost makes me regret not going with Immolation, Deicide or Liers in Wait.

 

[Phylactery]

The majority of the last theme's playlist was made up of extreme metal so I don't mind too much that this one doesn't have a lot of it.

 

[Slayed Necros]

Pagan Altar

Nice atmospheric opener. I've always loved the dungeon production on this album. 8/10

Carnivore

More Carnivore? There's not a whole lot that I like about this. 5/10

Sortilege

Possibly the ultimate heavy metal voice. I fucking worship this EP. 10/10

Gorgoroth

The peak of Infernus' writing and one of the highest points of 90s black metal in general. 10 is hardly enough. 10/10

Saint Vitus

Finally, Reagers Vitus! 10/10

White Wizzard

Solid. 7/10

Aspid

Genius tech-thrash. Not my forte, but stuff like this and Obliveon is fantastic. 9/10

Iron Maiden

Actually one of my favourites from Iron Maiden's debut. 8/10

Skyclad

Sabbat have never really clicked with me and this isn't doing a whole lot either. Decent. 6/10

Pentagram

Classic, but I prefer the 70s stuff and Day of Reckoning. 7.5/10

Fog of War

Very few modern thrash bands manage to make an impression on me. This isn't one of them. 5/10

Manowar

Yeah, classic Manowar. Rules. 8/10

Nyktalgia

I can't ever see myself sitting through something like this nowadays and the whole thing is kind of flowery and annoying. I'm going to have to revisit their debut, I remember liking it more than this. 5/10

Angel Witch

Hail the 80s. 9/10

Dream Death

"Dream Death! Somebody get me out of this nightmare!" 10/10

Dark Quarterer

Great closer. Amazing inept Italian production. 9/10

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Pagan Altar – 6/10

Good stuff, but they’ve never grabbed me as much as the other big epic metal names.

Carnivore – 2/10

Generic riffs, lolworthy fake female orgasm noises, stupid song for a stupid band.

Sortilege – 7/10

Very good, I don’t listen to them regularly enough to have a grasp on where to rank this relative to their other songs, but definitely representative of them.

Gorgoroth – 2/10

Intro overlong and a bit sappy, doesn’t lead into the main song well. Generic 6/4 black metal slog for the bulk of the rest. Of course the lyrics aren’t available because they probably suck.

Saint Vitus – 8/10

Will they win? Probably.

White Wizzard – 6/10

Good, but goes through a lot of the usual trad metal tropes and feels like they were trying a little too hard to create a big epic song to hang their crown on.

Aspid – 9/10

Not even one of the best songs on the album, but as an introduction to the band and album it immediately sells them, great buzzsaw riffing and crazy vox all the way through.

Iron Maiden – 8/10

I guess I’ll subtract one point because it doesn’t particularly sum them up well nor in a creative way, but it’s still an anthem for a reason, great song.

Skyclad – 8/10

I tend to neglect the first album, but man it makes me remember how venomous Walkyier was back in those days. This is the kind of Skyclad I prefer tbh.

Pentagram – 7/10

Good stuff.

Fog of War – 5/10

Back when this came out everyone hyped them as one of the bands that would surely make a huge name for themselves. Never really got into them myself, I think people liked them just because they had an audible bassist or something. Apparently they did actually release a new album last year, but yeah. Aside from the singer not bad though.

Manowar - 8/10

Great song, bonus point because it always get me pumped for more MANOWAR.

Nyktalgia – 3/10

Would have been tolerable if it ended about 5 minutes in like it felt it would, but then it decided to become another song. Overlong, boring, lame.

Angel Witch – 9/10

FUCK YEAH.

Dream Death – 10/10

A little faster and more upbeat than most of the album, but damn does it still fit. I probably have that chours playing in my head more than even most of the trad metal anthems in this line-up, and that says a lot.

Dark Quarterer – 8/10

Great song, too bad they jumped the shark after their first album so quickly.

 

[no country for old wainds]

i'm proud of the playlist for my theme, it's the highest standard tracklist yet to my ears. when one of the better pagan altar songs and dream death are battling it out for my seventh favourite and a solid manowar song isn't even top ten material, you know it's a formidable selection. cirith ungol wouldda knocked 'em down even further.

 

[Caecius]

I didn't realize how many good songs fit the theme.

 

[Baroque]

Pagan Altar - 5/10 Meh. Vocalist sucks and sounds whiny. Boring pentatonic leads typical of classic rock, not metal. Too long.
Carnivore - 6/10 Below average thrash.
Sortilege - 5/10 Decent but I have no idea what's going on vocally or lyrically. It's a bit annoying that they keep singing their own name like a Pokemon.
Gorgoroth - 3/10 Big time yawn at that intro. Then the singer busts through the curtains to surprise yell at us. Only to get boring again.
Saint Vitus - 5/10 Ok someone is just trolling with StV at this point. This isn't even that good.
White Wizzard - 7/10 Finally something decent or at least average.
Aspid - 9/10 Incredible thrash band. Not their most exciting song unfortunately, but still well above average. The part from 3:35-4:25 is the shit!
Iron Maiden - 4/10 I just never could get into these guys. Apparently they're supposed to be one of the best metal bands of all time? I don't know about that dudes.. this is barely even metal compared to what other bands were doing around the same time. This is basically early Deep Purple style proto metal. But in 1980.
Skyclad - 7/10 It's alright. Hadn't heard of them before.
Pentagram - 5/10 The pentagram is causing me to lose faith... in this playlist. Boring classic rock type shit again.
Fog of War - 8/10 It's their best song. Energetic. They were cool guys to meet in person. The lyrics need some work.
Manowar - 1/10 God this shit is so gay. How do people listen to this garbage power pop metal?
Nyktalgia - 5/10 This song has no development. It's like unirhythm unitempo unibrow shit throughout with random screams thrown in. It's still better than some of the other junk above. Fuck, 5 minutes in I just realized it's not even halfway over. - another point for that.
Angel Witch - 4/10 It was good until the chorus, so like 40 seconds? I was going with 7/10 until that abomination. Shit it's back again at 1:19? Is this going to happen every 40 seconds? Actually, yes. 2:05 almost right on cue. God that's annoying bland song structure. This might as well be a KISS song. I'm not a fucking angel witch lol.
Dream Death - 8/10 I like everything I've heard from this band so far. I don't own any of their cds yet but I'd like to. Anticipating their new album.
Dark Quarterer - 9/10 This was new (to me) and creative. Cool prog.

Bring on the next theme...

 

[no country for old wainds]

makes no sense to me that you'd give 'blood fire death' an 8 but constantly shit on manowar, the former is extremely derivative of the latter. not that that's one of manowar's better songs at all, but still.

 

[Krow]

Pagan Altar
10/10. One of the greatest heavy metal songs ever from one of the greatest heavy metal albums ever.

Carnivore
4/10. Stop posting Carnivore. Jesus fucking christ they dont deserve to be in every fucking game. Dwarfed by most of the list.

Sortilege
7.5/10. Coooool.

Gorgoroth
7/10 bueno

Saint Vitus
10/10. Oh look someone finally picked some of the best Vitus material.

White Wizzard
3.5/10 Not on the level of much else on this game.

Aspid
4/10. This is good but lets be honest, the high power on this playlist makes it shitty by comparison.

Iron Maiden
7/10. Not the biggest Maiden fan.

Skyclad
2/10. no bueno.

Pentagram
8/10.

Fog of War
3.5/10. Fag of war not up to par with the list.

Manowar
7.5/10.

Nyktalgia
6/10.

Angel Witch
10/10. My second choice. makes most of this list look like garbage.

Dream Death
9/10. Almost on par with perfection

Dark Quarterer
8/10. Great band.

Big quality gap between the big bands and some of the other crap on this list, hence no mercy for the junk.

 

[Baroque]

makes no sense to me that you'd give 'blood fire death' an 8 but constantly shit on manowar, the former is extremely derivative of the latter. not that that's one of manowar's better songs at all, but still.

What? You think Bathory sounds like Manowar?

 

[HamburgerBoy]

They totally do. EXTREME MIXTAPE review incoming.

 

[Baroque]

They totally do.

They're not even the same subgenre

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Viking metal isn't a real subgenre. It's a codeword for "Manowar-derived heavy metal too kvlt to admit to American influence (except KISS when we were 13)".

 

[Baroque]

Anyone who thinks


sounds like



has broken ears. And you should honestly get your hearing checked.

 

[Krow]

same might be argued of anyone who thinks aspid and fag of war are some of the best songs on that list....

 

[no country for old wainds]

even if it is a real genre, both bands fit into it at times during their careers. it's an extremely similar sound aside from the vocals, and they're widely regarded as the primary influence (as a cursory look at metal archives reviews will tell you). i actually think bathory's viking stuff is simpler and less strange sounding if anything. that said, there are also probably more manowar songs even during their classic period that are conventional/dumb.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Listen to Gates of Valhalla and tell me that isn't "Viking metal". I mean, even the damn fills are the same:




It's all heroic romanticized mythology with bucketloads of marching and bombast. Manowar started it all.

EDIT: Those are supposed to skip to 2m45s and 2m2s respectively, but you should still listen to the entire song because early Manowar is king.

 

[no country for old wainds]

the drumming in general is one of the things bathory more blatantly copied methinks.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

same might be argued of anyone who thinks aspid and fag of war are some of the best songs on that list....

From someone that thinks Gorgoroth is anything more than total shit, lol.