Daniel's Forum Replies

Personally I'm not as comfortable with 70's Budgie being considered as genuine metal. Their self-titled debut was certainly very heavy but I'm not sure that many of the riffs could be classed as metal as there was still too much blues involved in my opinion. The albums that followed it were just so varied that even if there might have been a metal track here & there, you'll find just as much folk music & prog rock included. The only release that I'd suggest comes pretty close to being metal was "Power Supply" from 1980 which was kinda 50/50 between hard rock & heavy metal. Judas Priest were the second heavy metal band for mine.

Ben, please add The Bride (Australia).

Ben, please add Borgne (Switzerland).

Ben, please add Bong (England).

Destruction - "Eternal Devastation" (1986)

This album was the first Destruction release that really interested me thanks to a more complex & mature song-writing style & a searing chainsaw-like guitar tone that clearly sums up the Teutonic thrash model. I also think that Schmier's lower register vocal delivery is improved substantially here & it's an absolute riff-fest to top it off. It's not perfect by any means but fans of Kreator, Sodom & particularly Coroner (who I suspect drew a great amount of influence from this record) will lap it up.

4/5

You'll find a couple of Budgie releases have already been added. Their more classic 70's material has been deemed to be more hard rock than genuine metal though. Do you disagree?

Ben, please add Blood Duster (Australia) & Bonesaw (England).

High Power - "High Power" (1983)

The debut album from this French heavy metal outfit is massively underrated in my opinion. In fact, it was the best metal release to have come out of France to the time in my opinion so I'm baffled as to why it hasn't gone on to become more well known. Perhaps it's the dodgy cover artwork? Fans of Sortilege, Mercyful Fate & particularly 70's Judas Priest will eat this up as long as they can handle the French lyrics. The vocalist really does sound like a French Rob Halford & the dual guitar attack is outstanding.

4/5

Too metal for hellfire perhaps?

So great to have you Tymell. And I share your feelings on systems & lists. I think that most committed metalheads share your passion there actually.

Also, choosing your clans is unquestionably pretty difficult for most true metal fans however I think the value of the clans arrangement becomes more & more obvious once you get a bit of time under your belt. I've found that I've become much more comfortable with missing out on membership of a couple of clans in recent times as I can see how it benefits the site to limit membership to those who are committed to the cause whole-heartedly & holistically rather than just possessing an interest in some portions of the clan. For example, I'm thinking of dropping back to three clans after admitting to myself that even though the raw aggressive black metal sound is something that I'm genuinely passionate about, the  folk & Viking metal elements are a bit of a struggle for me most of the time & the modern post-metal/blackgaze stuff isn't half as appealing as the more evil stuff either. Rather than dilute the charts I'm looking to separate myself from the clan to focus on the other three that I'm passionate about in their entirety. It doesn't mean that I won't gain the same benefit out of The North charts as the members do though. I'll maintain a keen interest in that.

Welcome to the site. I'm really glad you decided to take the plunge. Get amongst it & please feel free to feed back any thoughts you might have on the look & feel of the site.

I like it Xeph. Ben I simply MUST have this feature immediately. My very existence depends on it. Plus I want the particular clan I'm listening to at any one time to intuitively start to glow with a hint of hellfire that progressively starts to burn brighter as my listening experience reaches it's peak. Should be easy enough to deploy, shouldn't it?

We have over 100 members now by my count & that’s grown very quickly over the last week or so. Not all members are particularly active as yet though & the value & relevance of the site is only gonna get stronger with more ratings, reviews, threads, posts, personalities, villains, opinions, debates, etc. So don’t be shy guys! Every opinion is valid & welcome here no matter what your particular tastes, culture, age, gender, nationality, sexuality, religious belief or level of experience. We created the site for the enjoyment of every metalhead & are hoping to build clan-based communities amongst a greater overarching love of all things metal. Later on we might start to make things a little competitive between the clans for a bit of fun too. The world is our oyster really. So get stuck into communicating & keep that feedback coming on what you’re enjoying & what could be better. We’re good listeners (well I’m not really if I’m being honest but luckily Ben is).

Welcome to the Academy Shez. I'm so glad you've elected to enroll. The topic you mentioned was one that was hotly debated when we were designing the website concept. In the end it was decided that there is so much grey area between the different subgenres that we'd be better off going for primary genres only. Otherwise we'd have far too much work just keeping the subgenre tags accurate & relevant. Even if we used RYM as a guide for them, they're often inaccurate (particularly with those releases with very low rating quantities) & you often see them changing as the voting changes. We simply aren't going to be in a position to keep track of that. We did however conduct an extensive survey of metalheads to help us decide on which genres to link together & the results gave us a good guide on what the vast majority of fans would want. For example, we found that most grindcore fans also liked death metal so those two we combined in The Horde. It's all about what's most likely & if it works for the vast majority of people then we'll have achieved our goal.

Once we've got a really healthy membership it really won't matter all that much whether I'm a member of all of the clans I'd like to be as long as the overall ratings for the clans aren't tainted by ratings from people that don't like ANY of the subgenres they encapsulate & so far we believe we've achieved that. In saying that there were some subgenres that were particularly tricky to position & melodic death metal was one of the most debated along with folk metal, trance metal, industrial metal & symphonic metal. We think we've got it as close to right as we're going to get it but we're always looking to improve the site so we'll be keeping the topic open for some time yet. Please keep your feedback coming & enjoy the site. :)

I don't have the time to put together a top ten right now but here are a couple of examples that really shit me & add little value to otherwise pretty amazing releases:

I'm not sure how the 1986 debut album from Californian thrash metallers Sacrilege B.C. managed to drift by without much fuss as it's great stuff. Check out this belter:

Sacrilege B.C. - "Party With God" (1986)

The debut album from these Californian thrashers is an overlooked gem in my opinion. It's got a fair whack of hardcore about it but fans of the aggressive thrash that Slayer, Exodus & Dark Angel were dishing out around the same time will love this shit.

4/5

OK, I think we'll kick this off from 1st December then.

Ben, please add Blessed Death (USA) & Sacrilege B.C. (USA).

Ben, please add Blaspheme (France).

Ben, please add Black Wreath (Denmark).

Ben, please add Black Breath (USA).

Ben, please add Black Alice (Australia) & Black Task (USA).

Black Sabbath - "Asbury Park 1975"

This is better than any of the Sabbath live albums in my opinion. You really can't go wrong with a tracklisting like this.

4.5/5

Yeah I'll run with it.

I was thinking of doing exactly that actually. It would also help to clean out any releases that are only at the top of the charts because of a few high ratings. I spoke to Ben about potentially raising the minimum chart rating quantity this morning too which would also help with the accuracy & relevance of the charts.

Ben, please add Bison (Canada).

Ben, please add Birth Of Depravity (Greece).

Ben, please add Bifrost (Austria).

Flotsam & Jetsam - "Doomsday For The Deceiver" (1986)

The outstanding debut album from US thrash metallers Flotsam & Jetsam featuring future Metallica bassist Jason Newsted. Kinda sounds like Metallica & Megadeth meets the more melodic sounds of Agent Steel & early Queensryche. Very polished & ambitious for a first up effort. I've always dug it.

4/5

Ben, please add Bengal Tigers (Australia).

Ben, please add Beneath (Iceland) & Beneath The Massacre (Canada).

Ben, please add Belenos (France).

Ben, please add the gloriously named Begging For Incest (Germany) as well as Belphegor (Austria).

Damaar - "Triumph Through Spears of Sacrilege" demo (2007)

The only release from this Lebanese war metal outfit & you'll do well to find something that's more extreme than this. The vocal performance is utterly soul-destroying while the production job is as disgusting as you'd hope for from such a release. And that intro track is one of the scariest things yet put to tape. This is great stuff & fans of Bestial Warlust, Revenge & Conqueror should get on it urgently.

4/5

Nuclear Assault - "Game Over" (1986)

I've always enjoyed the debut album from these New York thrashers. Sure the guitar sound is lacking in distortion & definition but the rest of the mix makes up for it. As does the soild performance from the rhythm section. The tracklisting is very consistent & the band really didn't sound like anyone in particular. They'd already developed their own brand of hardcore-tinged thrash metal that never quite pushed out into full-blown crossover territory. Quality stuff.

4/5

Wow! Looks like quite a hectic place to be. How do I get to the beach to catch some rays? And which region offers the best home delivery pizza options?

Welcome to "Metal Academy" Isabel. That's one of my favourite songs too. Particularly the part where it goes "djent djent dj dj dj dj dj djent djent squeal" & the drums go "knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-dugga-dugga-ccchh". 

Vocalist: “Breeeeeee-breeeeeeeeee-Satany gutsy stuff-brreeeeee-oink-SQQQQQUUUEEEEEE”

I can't see them doing it purely for the money. I mean they've likely been offered a ridiculous amount of money over the years but have always turned it down.... until now. Hhhmmm… it doesn't reek of financial desperation to me. It seems more like unfinished business.

Thanks so much for going the passion & effort in making that video Andi. It's much appreciated. I've also made a targeted drive to grow our membership base over the last few days & we've seen a sharp upwards turn in our numbers with some very knowledgeable metalheads joining our ranks. I'll continue to push in the same way for the next little while & are very excited to see what's possible. Stay metal mate!

Ben was checking that album out earlier this week & comparing it to classic Opeth. I've got it on my iPhone to listen to over the next few weeks on Xephyr's recommendation.

The new single from this Swedish djent/prog metal outfit.

Welcome to the site saxy. I'm so glad you decided to come across & it's great to get an insight into where your metal roots began. Also, it's so cool that we've had a few new members joining The Gateway over the last few days. The site has been fairly extreme metal dominant up till now & we've always wanted it to be more universal & all-encompassing so keep up the good work as far as alternative metal content. It's all great stuff. 

Ben, please add Avgrunn (Spain).

Ben, please add Avenger (Germany).

Ben, please add Ava Inferi (Portugal).

Welcome to the site TJ. Don't be shy. We're building something special here & would like to encourage you to a) be as active as possible & b) invite all of your friends as ultimately the more ratings & reviews we have the more effective the clan concept is. Also, if you have any suggestions for improvements or bug fixes then please offer us the feedback. Traditionally we've taken up people's suggestions pretty quickly & it's led to greatly improved user experience.

Ben, please add At War (USA) & Attitude Adjustment (USA).