Daniel's Forum Replies

Thanks for the heads up. I’ll give it a few spins over the next few days.

Chris van Etten, I'd suggest that you'll really dig Acid Bath's 1994 debut album "When The kite String Pops".

Acid Bath - "When The Kite String Pops" (1994)

The first of two critically acclaimed albums from this Louisiana-based sludge metal outfit whose sound is very difficult to pigeon-hole given the very diverse range of influences on display. Personally, I think there's as much metalcore here as anything else given the use of hardcore vocals over aggressive, often death metal-esque riffage but I've never seen a single person dare to toss around that term with Acid Bath & it doesn't really account for the significant doom metal component. You can definitely expect to hear a fair whack of sludge, stoner & Southern metal along with some obvious death metal & grunge influences tossed in for good measure though. "When The kite String Pops" is a very strong record with no week tracks however it could certainly have been trimmed a little with the 69 minute runtime being a touch ambitious. There's some particularly chunky, groovy & ultra-heavy riffs floating around & fans of Eyehategod, Crowbar & Melvins will not be disappointed.

4/5

Calling for late submissions for the October “The Pit” playlist. Anyone yet to make their nominations?

Please get any last minute submissions in today as I'm be putting the October playlist together over the next couple of days.

Submissions for the October playlist are now closed as I've just completed the tracklisting however please feel free to continue nominating material for inclusion in the November playlist.

Sonny & Vinny, I recommend you give this one a few spins. I prefer it to "By Inheritance".

Danish thrash metal for fans of Exodus, Overkill & early Testament.

Artillery - "Terror Squad" (1987)

Most people rate 1990's "By Inheritance" album as the finest work from Danish thrash metallers Artillery however I have to disagree with that sentiment. I've always preferred their sophomore record "Terror Squad" which may not be as polished or melodic but more than compensates for it in raw aggression & urgency. There's a bit of a technical edge to some of the rhythms here however the band never fall into the trap of becoming overly clinical. I know Ben isn't a huge fan of the vocals but I actually think they're one of the best things about this release along with the incisive thrash riffage & high-energy double-time drumming. I highly recommend this album to fans of Exodus, Overkill & early Testament.

4/5

Submissions for the October The Gateway playlist are now closed as I've just completed it.

OK, I've just completed the October playlist. Thanks for all your contributions.

Yeah it is. :)

Type O Negative - "Halloween in Heaven" (from Dead Again, 2007) (Since it's gonna be October, that last song would fit greatly in the playlist, so please remove my earlier requested Type O Negative song ("Creepy Green Light") and add this one instead.)

Andi, this track is not on Spotify as far as I can see..

"Lovedrive" is also not on Spotify.

Yeah I quite like "Mirror Mirror" but the appeal sits mainly with the huge chorus. The rest of the track is a little too cheesy for my tastes so it'll never be a classic for me personally. "The Curse Of Feanor" & "Into The Storm" are the two that blow me away from "Nightfall in Middle-Earth" but what would I know... I don't even like "Nightfall" which seems to be universally celebrated as the other classic from the album.

This is simply one of the finest power metal tracks I've ever heard in my life. For fans of Helloween, Gamma Ray & iced Earth.

Blind Guardian - "Nightfall In Middle-Earth" (1998)

I thought I'd revisit this one after quite enjoying Andi's submission for the September The Guardians Playlist & found that I still have a lot of time for it. As with most European power metal, there's still a bit more cheese on offer than I'd like (particularly the medieval folk influence which is more pronounced than I remember from Blind Guardian's other releases) but the anthems are huge with some absolutely epic choruses. The vocals & instrumental performances are incredible here & have always been the main drawcards for me with Blind Guardian along with the furious speed metal component. I definitely prefer 1995's "Imaginations From The Other Side" over this one but "Nightfall in Middle-Earth" still sits comfortably amongst the top few power metal records I've ever experienced. I guess that says a lot about my taste for power metal in general. For fans of Helloween, Gamma Ray & Iced Earth. 

3.5/5

Energetic crossover thrash from Venice Beach, California. For fans of Suicidal Tendencies, DRI & The Accused.

Excel - "Split Image" (1987)

The debut album from this Venice Beach crossover thrash outfit which was released through Suicidal Tendencies front man Mike Muir's Suicidal label. The production isn't perfect as the rhythm guitars are a bit weak for thrash but the energetic tempos, shredding guitar solos & occasional downtempo Black Sabbath doom riff more than make up for it. The vocals can be a little pitchy at times but they're still much better than Muir was capable of at the time & possess a suitable level of enthusiasm. It's actually a pretty consistent record that represents a genuine crossover between thrash & hardcore so it's a little unfortunate that they've chosen to close the album with its only weak track in "Spare The Pain". I think the tracklisting could definitely have done with a couple more highlight tracks too but fans of Suicidal Tendencies, DRI & The Accused should really dig "Split Image". In fact, I'd suggest that it's a better record than any of those bands 1987 albums.

3.5/5

I can definitely see the sense in your feeling that funeral doom metal is the purest expression of doom metal Sonny. I see brutal death metal as the purest expression of death metal in a very similar way.

No we're not assuming that most people are put off by long track lengths. Just by long tracks in subgrenes that they have no time for. In saying that, there are definitely people out there that struggle to maintain their attention for the duration of a long track regardless of subgenre but I wouldn't say that this is the majority by any stretch.

I don't think anyone would mistake your adoration for lengthy doom metal excursions for an attempt to dominate the playlist. The thought never crossed my mind to be honest. My comments were based around the fact that I felt guilty for taking up a much greater portion of the run time with my selections & wondered whether people might consciously do that after seeing one of the Metal Academy administrators doing it. I came to the conclusion that they probably would so I wanted to put it out there early that this practice is frowned upon moving forwards.

That Scorpions track isn't on Spotify Vinny. Feel free to throw another track at me.

That's an interesting way to think of it Sonny. Our stance isn't done & dusted on this by any means & we're very open to the feelings of the clan members however there are a few things that we need to take into account here.

Firstly, what is the intent of the playlists? Well they're really intended to a) attract people to that particular clan & to Metal Academy in general & b) highlight new & interesting sounds to existing clan members. If there is always a risk that some people won't like or can't deal with a 20+ minute track (& I think there's a definite percentage of people that fall into that category despite having chosen The Fallen as one of their clans) then I would suggest that the longer the track is the more likely it is to be make or break for that person continuing to explore their initial interest. I think it's very relevant that both yourself & Andi struggled with the Pig Destroyer track & I don't think it's important as to why. What's important is that it proved how different people's tastes can be within a clan. Sure, I knew the length would be a challenge but I actually didn't think the experimental aspect would be a concern as I genuinely find that track to be the best thing I've heard this year. I absolutely love it & it had never occurred to me that it was all that experimental to be honest. I simply wanted people to hear what I regard as one of the most criminally underrated works I've ever encountered. Clearly it wasn't for everyone & that's worth considering as I want a diverse playlist that caters for everyone as much as possible. That track completely dominated the playlist in that it only allowed me to include ten tracks across two hours. The playlists for The Horde are sitting in the 30+ tracks by comparison & it doesn't matter that a lot of people haven't liked the gorenoise tracks so much because they're only short & don't make up a great percentage of the play time. Let's just say that I include Sleep's "Dopesmoker" as the outer extreme, I think there's a very strong chance that I'll lose both Andi & Ben's interest for a good portion of that hour. Wouldn't I be better served to go with something a little less daunting to ensure greater engagement? I dunno. I'm open to people's thoughts here.

Secondly, your comments about funeral doom metal & drone metal are interesting because those are the two most niche subgenres in The Fallen & are the most likely to put people off with lengthy over-indulgences in my opinion. What I found after my initial August playlists was that if a playlist is to be a true representation of the clan then it needs to include all subgenres in roughly accurate proportions. By my calculations those two subgenres combined make up just 8% of The Fallen's overall release base & that would leave about 5 minutes for each so if we're to include a 30 minute funeral doom epic then it's at the expense of something else that's potentially a more prominent player in the makeup of the clan like sludge metal, doom metal or gothic metal. Now I'm not suggesting that we limit those two subgenres to that extent but is it really that important to go with a 25 minute epic? I mean there's an absolute tonne of material out there. I took into account my experience with these subgenres & my call at a 20 minute limit was based on including the vast majority of every subgenre. Surely there is enough quality funeral doom metal that doesn't exceed that mark, isn't there? Please tell me if I'm wrong as you're certainly more experienced in that space. I can attest to the fact that 20+ minute tracks are certainly the exception rather than the rule with drone metal which is something I'm passionate about. Even Boris' "Feedbacker" is broken down into five separate tracks on the album in order to make it more palatable. I've noticed that the latest releases of Edge Of Sanity's "Crimson" do the same & I'd consider including certain sections.

If we use Andi as an example too, he's a genuine The Fallen member these days in that he utterly adores gothic metal, death doom metal & atmospheric sludge metal. However, he doesn't seem to be very interested in funeral doom metal or drone metal & I don't generally see him giving those subgenres much time, most likely because they don't offer him much appeal. For Ben, it's drone metal & stoner metal. For you it's gothic metal. Which subgenres we're talking about doesn't really matter though. What's important is that it shows that you can be a genuine clan member & still be isolated by over-indulgent track selection. Andi's Estatic Fear selection is also an example. My experience with Estatic Fear has not been enjoyable & if that's an accurate depiction of what I could expect from his submission then I feel that others may struggle with it too. I have to ask what the point of including it is when we could go with something less imposing from that artist that doesn't take a huge chunk out of our play time & therefore gives us more of a chance to draw people into Metal Academy.

And finally, I want to categorically rule a line through people trying to dominate our playlists by intentionally submitting lengthy tracks & I could see that being an issue in the future once I started thinking about it. In fact it could be viewed that I did that myself in September.

If we were to judge submissions on a case by case basis without any hard & fast rules, what would the criteria be for going either way & who would make that call?

What does everyone else think on this topic?

Andi, I've made a decision to change a few things about the playlist inclusions after September & one of them is to implement a "no tracks over 20 minutes in duration" policy. The reaction to the Pig Destroyer track seems to have been divisive & if you don't like a track of that magnitude then it's taken up too much of the playlist for you to get the full value out of it in my opinion. So feel free to change your submission.

Hi guys. I'm looking to have the playlists ready for release on the first day of every month moving forwards so I'm getting organised early. These are the tracks that I have leftover from last month which will be considered for inclusion again:

Andi

Dream Theater - "As I Am" (Train of Thought, 2003)

Mayan - "Undercurrent" (Undercurrent, 2018)

Opeth - "Demon of the Fall" (from My Arms, Your Hearse, 1998)

Any more submissions from The Infinite members before I finalize the playlist? Moving forwards I'd suggest simply dropping individual tracks in here whenever you discover them instead of waiting for me to ask as that will give me the most flexibility to do the playlists whenever I get the time & without having to wait to see if anyone responds. 

Hi guys. I'm looking to have the playlists ready for release on the first day of every month moving forwards so I'm getting organised early. These are the tracks that I have leftover from last month which will be considered for inclusion again:

MacabreEternal

Bolt Thrower “The Killchain”

Asphyx “The Krusher”

Deicide “Dead By Dawn”

Morbid Angel “Maze of Torment”

Obituary “Chopped in Half”

Disaffected - No Feelings Left (from the album Vast)

Portal - The Back Wards (from Vexvoid) 

Wormed - Agliptian Codex Cyborgization (from Krigshu)

There's a fair few fairly classic tracks there & a lot of them sit in the same subgenre so I probably won't include all of them. Any more submissions from The Horde members before I finalize the playlist?  Moving forwards I'd suggest simply dropping individual tracks in here whenever you discover them instead of waiting for me to ask as that will give me the most flexibility to do the playlists whenever I get the time & without having to wait to see if anyone responds.

Hi guys. I'm looking to have the playlists ready for release on the first day of every month moving forwards so I'm getting organised early. If any The Guardians members have any submissions then now's the time.

Also, in future I'd suggest simply dropping individual tracks in here whenever you discover them instead of waiting for me to ask as that will give me the most flexibility.

Also, moving forwards I'd suggest simply dropping individual tracks in here whenever you discover them instead of waiting for me to ask as that will give me the most flexibility to do the playlists whenever I get the time & without having to wait to see if anyone responds.

Hi guys. I'm looking to have the playlists ready for release on the first day of every month moving forwards so I'm getting organised early. If any The Gateway members have any submissions then now's the time.

Also, in future I'd suggest simply dropping individual tracks in here whenever you discover them instead of waiting for me to ask as that will give me the most flexibility.

Hi guys. I'm looking to have the playlists ready for release on the first day of every month moving forwards so I'm getting organised early. These are the tracks that I have leftover from last month which will be considered for inclusion again:

Sonny92

Esoteric – “Descent” (from “A Pyrrhic Existence”, 2019) Funeral doom metal 

Colosseum – “Towards The Infinite” (from “Chapter 2: Numquam”, 2009) Funeral doom metal 

M.S.W. – “Humanity” (from “Obliviosus”, 2020) Doom metal 

Winter – “Servants Of The Warsmen” (from “Into Darkness”, 1990) Death doom metal 

Ben

The Ruins Of Beverast – “Surtur Barbaar Maritime” (from “Exuvia”, 2017) Death doom metal 

Andi

Type O Negative – “Creepy Green Light” (from “World Coming Down”, 1999) Gothic metal 

I think that should cover us for funeral doom & doom/death. My own submissions sit in the atmospheric sludge metal, drone metal & traditional doom metal space this month. Any more submissions before I finalize the playlist? 

P.S. The Electric Wizard & Solstice tracks that Sonny suggested aren't available on Spotify so can't be considered.

Ben, please add Californian crossover thrash outfit Excel.

A ripper of a progressive metal anthem from our new The Infinite member Jean Elias. For fans of Dream Theater.

Not gonna lie, Okyr's Premorbid Intelligence is definitely gonna change the future of classic progressive metal, and I recommend it to many progressive metal listeners and fans including fellow Metal Academy members Ben, Daniel, Shezma, saxystephens & Xephyr. New guy in the site, the band's bassist Jean Elias would absolutely appreciate your support. Okyr's album is a practically unknown masterpiece that deserves to be heard worldwide!

So I gave "Premorbid Intelligence" a few spins over the last couple of days & really liked what I heard. The band are obviously very talented & focused musicians & they've created a record that continuously challenges the listener. If I was being critical I'd suggest that it definitely sits a little too close to the classic Dream Theater sound though & some of the more ambitious progressive passages can come across as a little messy at times but I think the main thing that differentiates Okyr from a top tier player like early 90's Dream Theater is simply that the vocals lack a little x-factor & the hooks aren't quite anthemic enough to have you humming them in your head for days afterwards. The closing track "Neurosis (& The Attraction Theory)" is a prime example of what can be achieved when you get those hooks just right & it subsequently ended up being my album highlight. The first couple of tracks & the last couple of tracks are outstanding. The four in the middle are pretty enjoyable too but are a step down from the other material. For a first-up effort "Premorbid Intelligence" shows a hell of a lot of potential & I expect to hear bigger & better things from Okyr in the future as this is a much better record than the debut albums from bands like Dream Theater & Fates Warning.

4/5

Excellent. I'll add them to the list for consideration. :)

Hmmm.... interesting. I just checked out the Dataclast tracks on the "The Day The Machines Took Over The World" compilation &  I'd actually suggest that they're a pretty good example of a subgenre known as cybergrind which resides in our The Horde clan. I've included a few cybergrind tracks in the August & September Metal Academy Radio "The Horde" Spotify Playlists so if you dig that sound then you might wanna check those out.

Boris with Merzbow - "Rock Dream" (2007)

Sonny, you will definitely wanna check out this double live album collaboration with Tokyo noise legend Merzbow that sits somewhere between post-metal, noise rock & drone metal. I rate it second only to "Feedbacker" in Boris' back-catalogue these days.

An epic drone metal collaboration from Tokyo, Japan.

Nice notes Andi. No thoughts on the tracks you didn’t submit? I’m always interested to know if my selections are hitting the mark or not & I already know you love your own submissions.

Basic Channel - "Quadrant Dub" E.P. (1994)

This one is more of a dub techno affair & far less dancefloor oriented than "Phylyps Trak". I used to use "Quadrant Dub I" as an opening track when I was playing the early opening sets early on in my DJ career & I'd use "Quadrant Dub II" when I needed to go to the bathroom & get a drink mid-set as it's a bit housier & is 20 minutes long! These days I use this E.P. to get my kids to sleep in the car  as it's highly repetitive & trance-inducing.

To be honest, this sits a fair way outside of my comfort zone as the guitars are held too far back in the mix with the electro-industrial beats & samples being much more dominant. During the best moments I sometimes find Strapping Young Lad popping into my mind but these are generally too brief which is the nature of these sort of releases & they're inevitably cancelled out by cheesier tracks that remind me far too much stuff like of Linkin Park anyway. Overall, I'd suggest that I only enjoy around 45% of the tracklisting so I can't justify the healthy scores this release seems to draw from the video game audience. Fans of Neurotech, Deathstars & Sybreed may find something of interest here but it doesn’t do all that much for me personally.

3/5

Sometimes you can stumble over a release that shows you in no uncertain terms just how much your taste can change over time & how your current mindset & environment can influence your opinions & Converge's eighth album is fine example of that for me. When I first gave it a few spins around the time of release I found that I quite liked it but wouldn't have suggested that it was anything all that special however after this week's revisit I think it might just be my favourite Converge release. I can't believe how much energy & virtuosity this band maintains throughout the entire tracklisting & their sludgier moments are nothing short of crushing. I've never been a fan of front man Jacob Bannon's vocals but this might just be the record to turn that opinion around as he's got a lot more intelligibility & power here. And then there's drummer Ben Koller who is utterly mind-blowing & has been one of my favourite musicians for many years now, only this time he's reached another level altogether. Unlike some of the band's earlier classics though, "All You Love You Leave Behind" never sees Converge needing to extend themselves into mathcore territory for too long because they're far too efficient at their craft for that now & have ultimately transcended the requirement. This is rabid, classy, monstrous metal-infused hardcore based on controlled chaos & intelligent violence. Amazing!

4.5/5

Basic Channel - "Phylyps Trak" E.P. (1993)

High quality German techno including the trademark dubby, analogue atmosphere from the originating godfathers of the sound. These three tracks all floated around my DJ sets back in the mid-to-late 2000's however "Phylyps Base" was probably the mix that got the most play time from me as it's a touch darker. For fans of Maurizio, Cyrus & Plastikman.

Well, for starters I’d like to state that I think Venom are one of those bands that would have had much more of an impact on me if I had of been there at the time. It was only seven years after its release that I first encountered "Welcome To Hell" however a lot had gone on in the metal world during that period & my ears were already accustomed to a more sophisticated & mature sound by that stage. To be fair, I've never really gravitated towards your more tongue-in-cheek approaches to metal either. Having said that though, I’ve always had a soft spot for Venom due to their catchy song-writing & addictive energy & that attribute has never been more potent than it is on “Welcome to Hell”. It’s an extremely consistent record & I have some time for every song on the tracklisting but I’m not sure that the highlights are strong enough to elevate the album into the higher scoring brackets for me personally though. Much the same as Motorhead, Venom don’t play a style of metal that will have them sitting in my all-time favourite albums but they do enough to give me a general fondness of the time I’ve spent with them over the years. To me “Welcome To Hell” was more of an important release in the continued maturity & development of metal than a genuine classic in its own right.

As far as its credentials for inclusion in The Pit go, I'd suggest that “Welcome To Hell” was the closest anyone had come to a genuine speed metal record up to that point in time although I don’t think it quite gets there & I'd prefer to see it residing entirely in The Guardians. Venom took the dark atmosphere of Black Sabbath, the theatrics of KISS, the proto-thrash riffage of “Stained Class”-era Judas Priest, the rock ‘n’ roll infused speed metal elements of Motorhead & the raw punk electricity of the Sex Pistols & combined them in the ugliest fashion possible. The punk element shouldn’t be underplayed. There are a couple of songs that are closer to punk than metal but the band never fail to incorporate the catchy & memorable hooks of rock ‘n’ roll song-writing & that’s really the key to Venom’s success. Even at their ugliest there is an undeniable catchiness to these simple songs. The package might not be glossy but it has an accessibility beneath it’s rough exterior. Motorhead would seem to be the primary influence & you can hear it throughout the record. The most important & influential elements of “Welcome To Hell” are a) the raw & noisy production, b) the flat out speed metal approach to the riffs & c) the more aggressive vocal approach. Those are the elements that most influenced extreme metal & why the band is so often spoken of as the root of the entire movement.

My favourite Venom release is the slightly more ambitious "At War With Satan" these days but "Welcome to Hell" comes in a close second over "Black Metal".

3.5/5

Here's a excerpt from my review:

Upon first listen I was immediately pushed onto the back foot in no uncertain terms. I had recently been listening to a release that must have had a fairly low volume level because no sooner had I pressed play than I received an involuntary physical direction to throw my headphones off in self-defence. I actually can’t describe just how loud the wall of noise that came bursting out of those speakers was however let’s just say that I’ll be lucky if I don’t experience any long-term effects. After drastically reducing the volume I was ready to give it another shot though & on my second attempt I was presented with a slightly less voluminous but only marginally less confronting audio assault. My first impression was that the production job is actually very bright & electronic sounding which is not something I would usually relate to metal music. It’s much closer to something you’d hear in electronica. Particularly on the more industrial end of the spectrum. The high end electronic noises have an ear-catching vibrancy about them however you won’t get much time to take them in as everything flies past in a matter of seconds before moving onto something entirely similar. The artificially produced snare sounds aren’t to my taste much which is a real concern given that there’s about twenty zillion of them in the ten minutes. They just sound really cheap. Kinda like one of those wind-up monkeys banging away on their little drum. They’re very much in the style of your entry level midi-keyboard sound but in all honesty, most of the nuances are completely irrelevant because everything is dwarfed by the huge, bulbous, throbbing mass of noise that engulfs everything throughout pretty much the entire ten minutes. The levels have very clearly been thrust up to eleven to make sure that there is as much distortion as possible & that everything is as loud as humanly imaginable. I’d imagine that the wave file for each track would simply be a solid bar from top to bottom.

It’s actually really hard to look at “Desiccation in Progress (Version II)” from a musical point of view because I’m not sure it actually qualifies under that term. I can see where the grindcore association is loosely drawn from in the continual use of hyper-speed blast-beats, sudden & seriously brutal changes & ultra-deep death metal vocals however this release is much further over towards the harsh noise side of the equation than the metal one. Perhaps in a similar way to some of Darkspace’s later material being more ambient than black metal. I mean you can’t hear anything like a riff here. Is there any guitar at play here? I dunno. It’s simply not possible to identify anything from the wall of noise with even the continuous snare hits being hard to pick up on occasion. The very idea of melodic composition seems almost irrelevant with gorenoise & for that reason it’s very hard for any of these tracks to identify themselves from one another. In fact, ten minutes almost seems too long for the minimal quantity of ideas going on here. I find myself losing interest fairly quickly after the initial novelty wears off so I can’t see myself giving one of these releases multiple listens without a considerable break in between & perhaps it wouldn’t be advisable for your health anyway all things considered.  

The vocals are an interesting topic because it sounds like Big Frog has gone to great effort to actually SOUND like a frog & the amphibian-related effects that are included on many of the tracks would support that theory. I have no idea as to whether there are actual lyrics for these tracks but it’s highly doubtful because it would have taken much longer to write them than to compose & record the entire album. I can’t see anyone sparing the time to read them anyway as these tracks fly past in a heartbeat. I’m not too sure if the vocal delivery employs the use of pitch-shifting technology or not because it’s fucking deep but I find it much more easily palatable than some of your more obviously artificial goregrind exponents & I actually think it’s done pretty effectively.  

At the end of the day, “Desiccation in Progress (Version II)” is a novelty release. Nothing more, nothing less. So if you’re looking for substance here you’ll be seriously disappointed. The sheer abrasiveness of the wall of sound is all that matters & I’d be surprised if most fans of the gorenoise subgenre aren’t really more obsessed with shocking their friends & family than becoming emotionally engaged with the music. But in saying that, I do enjoy the sheer brutality of it all in some way. I can’t say that I’ve ever come across a more brutal style of music & that appeals to me from a purely conceptual point of view. It’s therefore possible that I’ll never be as harsh as I probably should be on an album like this & my score is based on the fact that, even though it may not be my cup of tea, I’d still much rather listen to this than Heavy Load, Helloween or Warlord. 

3/5

Look, let's be honest here... Helloween were never really going to be my thing now, were they? I must have given this record a dozen revisits over the years in order to see if the penny would finally drop however I'm still no closer to finding much enjoyment in its overly cheesy take on European power metal. In saying that though, I do think it's Helloween's best work, mainly off the back of "You Always Walk Alone" & "We Got the Right" which I really dig (probably because they travel closer to traditional heavy metal territory). Surprisingly, I actually find the "Keeper Of the Seven Keys" series to less intolerable than Helloween's first couple of speed metal releases. I guess this band simply isn't for me.

3/5