Daniel's Forum Replies

Black Alice - "Endangered Species" (1983)

The debut album from a tragically overlooked Perth-based heavy rock outfit whose sound sits somewhere between the hard Australian pub rock of AC/DC & the European heavy metal of Judas Priest, Saxon & Accept. Their powerful frontman sounds like Brian Johnson (AC/DC), Udo Dirkschneider (Accept) & Blackie Lawless (WASP) at various times. If these guys were from England we'd know all about them.

3.5/5

Holy Moses - "Queen Of Siam" (1986)

The debut album from these female-fronted German thrashers. Well in truth this record is more of a hybrid of Acid style speed metal & Iron Maiden style heavy metal than it is thrash. The vocals are pretty terrible but there are a few tracks that float my boat.

3/5 

Ben, please add the following bands:

Castavet (USA)

Celestia (France)

Ereb Altor (Sweden)

Bathory - "Under The Sign Of The Black Mark" (1987)

The first truly great black metal record in my opinion.

4.5/5

Kreator - "Flag Of Hate" E.P. (1986)

One of the biggest records of my teenage years. A true classic of the Teutonic thrash metal movement.

4.5/5

Korn - "Korn" (1994)

I'm surprised by just how much I like this record given my generally strong aversion to nu metal. This is a solid metal record made more impressive by the fact that it was the first release of its type.

4/5

Ben, please add these bands:

Burial Invocation (Turkey)

Cenotaph (Turkey)

Chronic Decay (Sweden)

Celtic Frost - "Tragic Serenades" E.P. (1986)

4/5

Nevermore - "Dreaming Neon Black" (1999)

A superb progressive metal concept album that includes a mixture of thrash metal, groove metal, power metal & gothic metal influences. I absolutely love it.

4.5/5

Pathology - "Reborn To Kill" (Release date: 9th August)

The tenth album from this San Diego slam death metal outfit.

Disillusion - "The Liberation" (Release date: 6th September)

The new album from these German progressive metallers.

Suicide Silence - "Live & Mental" (Release date: 12th July)

Opeth - "Hjärtat vet vad handen gör" single (Release date: 12th July)

The new single from the Swedish prog masters upcoming album "In cauda venenum" which is due for release on 27th September.

Destruction - "Born To Perish" (Release date: 9th August)

The sixteenth album from these legendary members of the Big Four of Teutonic Thrash Metal.

Suicidal Angels - "Years Of Aggression" (Release date: 9th August)

The seventh album from these Greek thrashers.

Witch Cross - "Fighting Back - The Studio Anthology 1983-1985" compilation (Release date: 9th August)

Danish heavy metal.

Obituary - "A Dying World" single (Release date: 10th July)

The new single from these Florida death metal legends.

Gaskin - "End Of The World" (1981)

The debut album from this underground NWOBHM trio from Lincolnshire, England. It's really pretty uneventful with some flat vocals being the biggest negative. It's not horrible though.

3/5

Ben, please add Blood Of Kingu (Ukraine), Bran Barr (France) & Carach Angren (Netherlands).

Ben, please add Gotham City.

Black Sabbath - "The End: 4th February 2017, Birmingham" (2017)

The triple disk set featuring "The Angelic Sessions" on the third disk. It's actually a fantastic way for Sabbath to go out as the production is outstanding & the instrumental performances are all top notch. The band's sound is extra heavy due to the fact that they've down-tuned a bit to cope with Ozzy's reducing range. I actually think this might be my preferred Ozzy-fronted live album from Sabbath although the Dio-fronted "Live Evil" would be my favourite overall.

4/5

Abominable Putridity - "Demolisher" E.P. (Release date: 5th July)

Slam death metal from Russia.

Bengal Tigers - "Metal Fetish" E.P. (1982)

Aussie hard rock that hints at heavy metal at times. The production is very much in the underground NWOBHM style & the vocals & lead guitar work are very good. Fans of early Riot, Twisted Sister & AC/DC should find a fair bit to enjoy here.

3.5/5

Riot V - "Live in Japan 2018" DVD (Release date: 2nd August)

The new live video from these legendary New York power/heavy metallers.

Russian Circles - "Blood Year" (Release date: 2nd August)

The seventh full-length album from this Chicago-based post-metal outfit.

Ben, please add Avsky from Sweden.

Ben, please add these bands:

AtomA (Sweden)

Periphery (USA)

W.A.S.P. - "The Crimson Idol" (1992)

4.5/5

Primus - "Frizzle Fry" (1990)

4/5

Bathory - "Twilight Of The Gods" (1991)

4/5

Taipan - "Taipan" E.P. (1981)

Australian NWOBHM-style heavy metal that reminds me of early Tygers Of Pan Tang with a bit of an early Motley Crue commercial edge to it. Possibly the earliest Aussie metal release worth mentioning.

3.5/5

Overkill - "Feel The Fire" (1985)

The debut album from these New Jersey thrash metal heavy-weights.

The Contortionist - "Early Grave" single (Release date: 25th June)

The new single taken from the US progressive metallers upcoming "Our Bones" EP.

Ben, please add these bands:

Arise (Sweden)

Black Sun Aeon (Finland)

The Breathing Process (USA)

Venom - "Possessed" (1985)

Ben, please add German heavy metallers Sinner & NWOBHM outfit Wolf.

Wormed - "Metaportal" E.P. (Release date: 19th July)

Brutal/technical death metal from Madrid, Spain.

Boris - "Tears" E.P. (Release date: 26th June)

Blitzkrieg - "A Time Of Changes" (1985)

NWOBHM style heavy metal from Leicester, England.

Ben, please add the following bands:

Anihilated (England)

Korzus (Brazil)

Metreya (Australia)

Metallica - "Hardwired...to Self Destruct" (2016)

I think this is Metallica's best studio album since the "Black Album" but it's still a deeply flawed piece of work. 

3/5

Pallbearer - "Atlantis" single (Release date: 14th June)

The new single from these US doom metal merchants.

Rotting Christ/Varathron - "Duality of the Unholy Existence" split E.P. (Release date: 28th June)

Two greats of Greek melodic black metal come together.

Ben, please add the following bands:

Adrift For Days (Australia)

Blood For The Black Owl (USA)

Crematory (Germany)

Halford - "Live Insurrection" (2001)

A high quality double live album that showcases Rob at his best. This is a seriously metal release.

4/5

Welcome Andi & thanks a lot for the positive feedback. Ben & I have always intended the "Metal Academy" website to be more of a community than a dictatorship. In fact, our members probably haven't realized it yet but they actually have as much access to change the site as I do at the moment because Ben is currently the only administrator & is responsible for managing all of the delivery aspects of the website project (yes he's an IT nerd). We share all of the decision-making on how it looks & feels & what functionality we'll include but I'm more heavily responsible for the creation of the "Metal Academy" podcast which takes up most of my spare time so I enjoy the website as much from a user point of view as anything else. To be honest, we'd really like our members to have as much say in how the site functions & is laid out as we do so please feel free to offer improvement suggestions. We've already taken up several positive & productive suggestions from our members.

Also, we're thrilled to see you joining The Revolution because that clan has been a little quiet early on. As have The Sphere & The Gateway so I'd like to openly encourage people to get involved with those clans. You won't see any clan shaming on this website so people should feel free to go with whichever clans they honestly feel they're most passionate about. It's actually essential for the clan concept to work to its full potential when you think about it. We want everyone to be able to be themselves & openly express their opinions here. The more ratings & reviews submitted the better so don't be shy. We're very keen to hear your thoughts on the music you love.... or hate for that matter.

And finally... spread the word! Let's make this into something valuable & long-term for fans of metal music!

Sunn O))) - "Black One" (2005)

This post is a prime example of why the "Metal Academy" website is a superior tool for finding new music that fits your unique personal tastes than our competition can boast of. I've always been a fan of the Sunn O))) material I've encountered but I doubt that I would ever have checked this album out if not for the high regard its held in by our own Revolution666 & Jon who both awarded it the full five stars. "Black One" doesn't receive anything like that sort of rating on the less targeted rating & review sites that allow their scoring to be diluted by less devoted listeners. This is one of the best albums I've ever heard in my life to be perfectly honest. Our clan system works like a muthafucka!

5/5

Demonic Resurrection - "Live At Bloodstock" (Release date: 8th June)

The new live album from this Indian symphonic death metal outfit.

Make The Suffer - "Hollowed Heart" single (Release date: 7th June)

The new single from this Aussie deathcore outfit.

Ben, please add these bands:

Aborted (Belgium)

Aeternam (Canada)

Ares Kingdom (USA)