Mekong Delta - Heroes Grief – 10/10
Definitely one of my favorite Mekong Delta songs. I love the atmosphere behind this, super distorted and ugly bass starting things, then that angular Sabbathy riff and dismal wailing chorus, and as far as I’m concerned the gradual build up in the second half with the eerie 6/4 march and backing keyboards beat the Norwegian black metal bands to the punch by several years. Pretty much everything on their first three albums takes an unusual and original take on classic metal, but this in particular is one of those songs that does its own thing and doesn’t give a shit.
Skelator - Elric the Dragon Prince – 8/10
I’m such a cheapass because I mostly just listen to their early album they have for free download. This sounds like a completely different band, but still quite good. Great singer, really thick but vintage sounding guitars, thoughtful songwriting, the way retro metal should be.
Crypt of Kerberos – Stormbringer – 5/10
Never got into this album. This song is just kind of dull to me, the riffs go through different moods but are individually too rudimentary to be interesting. Solo was the only good part.
Wolfbane - Elric of Melniboné – 7/10
Never heard of these guys, surprisingly good stuff and kinda a rare style for the NWOBHM. Almost a melodic non-doom Saint Vitus kind of vibe here, pretty bleak and moody.
Stormbringer - Tales of the White Wolf – 8/10
I’ve listened to the Stealer of Souls demo a number of times (and never liked it much) and this doesn’t sound anything like it, at first I thought this was another band and a newer one. Clean, heavy, speedy, pretty simple but damn this has really good energy.
At the Gates - City of Screaming Statues – 9/10
One of the proggiest songs from the album and one of my favorites, full of chill-inducing riffage.
Diamond Head - Borrowed Time – 6/10
Solid song that I’ve always wanted to love. I think the slick production and synths work well here, and no doubt Sean Harris had a perfectly expressive voice for this kind of music, but the arrangement is just too dull. Unrelated and not affecting the rating, but I never noticed before how sloppy the drumming was on this, lol.
Sacramentum – Overlord – 8/10
These guys have more than one album? Cool. Sounds pretty damn solid on first impression actually, real riffs all the way through and the production while immaculate still sounds really dark and heavy. The instrumental passage is really making it for me, bumping it up an extra point on account of that. Liking this much more than anything from the first album.
Domine - The Freedom Flight – 5/10
The more I actually hear of Italian power metal, the more I realize there are far flowerier (AutoCorrect didn’t complain about this? amazing) countries out there. Solid speedy stuff with an admittedly hilarious chorus. Not special enough and too long to get anything more than an average rating though.
Apollo Ra - Bane of the Black Sword – 9/10
Very happy to see these guys here, that intro/chorus melodic riff is just so pleasing and the verses have that crunch and sneer that gives me a big 80s Savatage chubby. One of my favorites on this album, and because I hadn’t even thought about them for the theme I’ll add a bonus point because it’s a really great song anyways.
Great playlist, definitely one of the best.
