Shadowdoom9 (Andi)'s Forum Replies

My thoughts on some of the tracks (including my sole suggestion):

Neurosis – “No River To Take Me Home” (from “The Eye Of Every Storm”, 2004)

10/10. This Neurosis song is one of the most clever mixes of extreme and ambient you would ever come across. It opens with a searing riff of mourning loss, then develops into flowing mid-paced guitars, followed by a quiet smoothing duet between the two vocalists/guitarists Steve Von Till and Scott Kelly (the latter I know more about since his frequent collaborations with Mastodon).

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

9/10. Another familiar tale of losing a loved one by untimely death. I chose that song because it is one of their more popular singles despite having been rarely played live and it also fits for this month's playlist due to its Halloween reference ("Halloween in Heaven" would've been better but that song wasn't on Spotify). "Creepy Green Light" let us see the light of gothic doom metal and the tragedies within the lyrics we can kinda relate to.

Here's a complete list of instrumentals from tech-death/thrashers Revocation (including their time as Cryptic Warning) for you to consider which ONE or a FEW to include in your possible Spotify playlist:

1. Thrashterpiece Theatre

2. Man in the Dark

3. Alliance and Tyranny

4. Stillness

5. Enter the Hall

6. Across Forests and Fjords

7. Fractal Entity

8. Spastic

9. Apex

10. The Exaltation

11. Ex Nihilo

Many of these instrumentals are thrashy to fit in with the other instrumentals here! Not only that, if I can make my own Spotify playlist, I might include this list as an unofficial compilation of all Revocation instrumentals, or I can write my own lyrics based on them to test my lyric-writing skills (evident in this project: https://metal.academy/forum/23/thread/509). But since this is your playlist, Sonny, please feel free to choose just ONE or a FEW from my list. Enjoy!

Finally listening to more of post-sludge legends Neurosis! Here's a good song from them:

Here are a couple metalcore bands that I love one of their songs so much to enjoy the rest of their discographies. This first band is Coldrain, alternative metalcore from Japan for fans of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, early-2010s Bring Me the Horizon, and early-2000s Linkin Park (even this video is inspired by one of Linkin Park's videos):

The other band is Misery Signals, melodic progressive-ish metalcore from Wisconsin (where my dad's from!) for fans of August Burns Red, After the Burial, and late-2000s Protest the Hero:

An amazing example of progressive doom/death from Massachusetts, USA.

That song is indeed amazing! I sense some prominent Wildhoney influences in there...

Thanks Ben! Yeah I was a bit eager to put in multiple releases at once in a single thread when I could've put each one in different relevant clan forums which I thought would be some hard work. Just like that "Tracks of the Day - Multi-Clan Edition" thread, I shall stop using this one and stick with the single-clan threads. This multi-clan thread is over!

Ben, please add these new albums:

Avatar - Hunter Gatherer (I was going to suggest that album when it come out two months ago but I forgot)

The Ocean - Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic / Cenozoic (if you end up including it with The Fallen clan and Sludge Metal label, please put in the Hall of Judgement with the proposal of removing that clan and genre tag, reasons mentioned here: https://metal.academy/forum/28/thread/385?page=1#topic_4402)

Amaranthe - Manifest (will be released tomorrow)

I did my review, here's its summary:

I've listened to a few songs from Insomnium before writing the original review, but I still don't really feel any interest in this band. But how can that be? They're like a Finnish Amon Amarth with the viking lyrics taken out and acoustic atmospheric elements taking their place. Their largely consistent style is close to early Gothenburg-style melodeath with slight occasion helpings of other Finnish melodeath bands such as Kalmah and Norther. Their appealing taste comes from the ability to deliver their sound just right, staying in one element for a decent amount of time before switch to the next without any overtly progressive pretension. Apparently, their audience really likes rage and sorrow, so that's what the band has given them, all bottled up in a disc. Here they picked up the pace and a slight power metal-like approach. They have a highly effective attempt to avoid any common repetition and the mundane verse-chorus formula that has infected Swedish melodeath bands like Amon Amarth and sometimes The Crown. Recurring themes occur often but the embodied ambiguity makes clear choruses not too obvious. While catchy and memorable, the flow of melody isn't clearly symmetric in design, though the broad acoustic sections each mark a cadence in the sound of separation. Though there are a few flaws, many of the songs come together in a dark epic journey creating a well-formulated adventure without being too adventurous. This melodeath is something any metal band can appreciate for a mix of melodic and extreme without any excess similarities to other bands. The only flaw is their sound not being expanded. However if every melodeath band expand that genre, it would lose its unique recognition. So enjoy the awesome melodeath while it's still around!

4.5/5

Two-Week Quarantine (All That Remains COVID parody about the risk of quarantine)

RIP former Trivium bassist Brent Young );

Anime techno-rave trance-metalcore from Japan to please fans of Amaranthe, Dir En Grey, Enter Shikari and a bit of anime theme music:

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..

Hmmm... Is "Creepy Green Light" available on Spotify? (see my (again) edited list above)

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.

Good track, though it's pretty clear that "Mirror Mirror" is a greater classic, hence my submission for this month's Guardians playlist. For October's playlist, I have another Blind Guardian song suggestion and even though it's more on the thrashy speed metal side, it's another classic still performed by the band to this day and had already shaped up their majestic power metal sound that would come to be: https://metal.academy/forum/9/thread/479?page=1#topic_4269

OK, time for my suggestions for October's playlist. Since I'm currently the only active Revolution member, and you were able to accept all my suggestions for previous playlists, I'm gonna keep adding 7 suggestions instead of the usual 3, at least until we gain more active Revolution members.

All That Remains - "The Deepest Gray" (from This Darkened Heart, 2004)

Between the Buried and Me - "Mordecai" (from The Silent Circus, 2003)

Converge - "The Broken Vow" (from Jane Doe, 2001)

God Forbid - "Better Days" (from Gone Forever, 2004)

Ice Nine Kills - "Stabbing in the Dark" (from The Silver Scream, 2018) (the perfect "Halloween metalcore" song for this playlist)

Shadows Fall - "The Unknown" (from Fire From the Sky, 2012)

Trivium - "Like Light to the Flies" (from Ascendancy, 2005)

OK, time for my suggestions for October's playlist. Daniel, please choose these songs:

DragonForce - "Cry Thunder" (from The Power Within, 2012)

Blind Guardian - "Majesty" (from Battalions of Fear, 1988)

Freedom Call - "The Darkness" (from Legend of the Shadowking, 2010) (this last song being a good Halloween-ish song for the October playlist)

OK, time for my suggestions for October's playlist. Daniel, please choose these songs:

Solstafir - "I Myself the Visionary Head" (from Masterpiece of Bitterness, 2005)

My Dying Bride - "Catherine Blake" (from Songs of Darkness, Words of Light, 2004)

Type O Negative - "Creepy Green Light" (from World Coming Down, 1999)

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

Wonderful progressive song! Jean Elias is really good at his bass. Y'know, seeing the word "Neurosis" made me realize that I need to listen to more of the band Neurosis. I should get going on that band soon...

Speaking of potential new features, go check out the Gallery now. You can now look for the top rating covers that you haven't yet rated. 

That's great, Ben! This should help members who want to check out some of the coolest artworks that they haven't rated yet or explore different bands. Can you please do the same thing for the charts, for anyone who wants to find higher-rated bands they haven't rated or listened to yet? Thanks.

My thoughts on a few other tracks:

Iced Earth – “Dystopia” (from “Dystopia”, 2011)

7/10. Here we go again with this band, Iced Earth. I just can't seem to find a way through this band. I mean it has powerful lyrics that speak real volumes, but still not as awesome as people say it is. It might be as addictive as drug, but for me it's a technological bug. I should've listened to this band more in my earlier epic metal days.

Arion – “Seven” (from “Last Of Us”, 2014)

9/10. This one's much better! I almost thought this was another Iced Earth song, but the instrumentation is more melodic and symphonic with more beautiful singing. A great example of symphonic power metal, but still doesn't spark up great band interest.

My thoughts on a few other tracks:

Misery Signals – “Sunlifter” (from “Ultraviolet”, 2020)

10/10. I made the right choice of choosing this song to listen to. Misery Signals is the exact band this generation needs for a great impact of heart-shedding emotion. This song, "Sunlifter" has just became my favorite song of this year! It's amazing how a band that disappeared for a few years came back just in time to deliver a new album with awesome material like this song. Welcome back, Misery Signals, I'll be listening to more of you...

Strawberry Hospital – “Chimera” (from “Grave Chimera”, 2018)

8/10. Strawberry Hospital is an interesting project, mixing electro-trance with ambient black/metalcore/screamo. It's pretty great, but I don't think it's enough to consider more listens than just one. Too experimental, I guess.

HORSE The Band – “Cutsman” (from “R. Borlax”, 2003)

9/10. As some of you already know, I've reviewed HORSE the Band's recent album Desperate Living as part of The Revolution Melodic Metalcore clan challenge, and it was never really the best in that challenge. Now after getting interested in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, it was time to make another attempt on a synth-metalcore band which is, you guessed it, HORSE the Band! This is a good song to jam to, especially the "CUT CUT CUT" breakdown in the middle. You might think synth-metalcore is a dead genre since this band went on a hiatus, but NOPE, it was reborn by Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I also heard that the video game Borderlands 3 has a gun named after this song with its description being part of the song. Now that's genius! Still not feeling up to HORSE the band, though...

So far, those first 7 tracks really hit the mark with their playing order; two over 6-minute early-2000s melodeath-ish metalcore short epics surrounding 5 different-sounding 3-4 minute more recent tracks of different metalcore styles; symphonic deathcore, progressive metalcore, ambient black/trance-metalcore, synth-metalcore, and multi-vocalist trance-metalcore. A great collective overture of metalcore styles before the rest of the playlist. Nicely placed, Daniel!

I wasn't thinking of the other tracks because I already know the ones I submitted and seeing how many tracks this playlist has, it would take way too long to review them all. I'm gonna listen to a few more songs from this playlist and see how I like them. I might even do the same for the playlists for my other clans. More track thoughts coming..

Great list, Daniel! I'm glad to see that you picked up all of my suggestions instead of cutting them down to 3, probably because I'm currently the only active Revolution member, so thanks for that. Here are my thoughts on them:

Bleeding Through – “Savior, Saint, Salvation” (from “Portrait Of The Goddess”, 2002)

10/10. What better way to start the playlist than with this 6 and a half minute melodeath-ish metalcore epic. It starts with softly with nice keyboard touches, then the heavy chaos comes back. Brandan really his notes with no strain. M. Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold (a metalcore band at the time before morphing into a hard rock/metal band my brother likes) does guest clean singing in the slower epic sections. That was a great song, one of their best!

Betraying The Martyrs – “Man Made Disaster” (from “Breathe In Life”, 2011)

9/10. A killer song from the album where Betraying the Martyrs had their original symphonic deathcore/metalcore sound. This has a mix of deathcore vocal/instrumentation brutality, powerful clean vocals, and orchestral background.

Amaranthe – “Trinity” (from “Massive Addictive”, 2014)

8/10. I chose this song because it's a strong symbolization of the band, and more importantly the number 3; a 3-singer band singing their third song in their third album with their band logo being a triangle. Slightly calm but still powerful!

Shadows Fall – “Root Bound Apollo” (from “Of One Blood”, 2000)

10/10. This song is another one of my favorite metalcore songs, here having a fast searing Metallica-like solo. This was actually originally a song by Fair's former band Overcast, but it ended up in this album. It would later be re-recorded on the Overcast album Reborn to Kill Again.

The Dillinger Escape Plan – “Farewell, Mona Lisa” (from “Option Paralysis”, 2010)

9/10. Say hello to TDEP's mathcore again! It was a track that really teased what new direction the band might take in that album. The band gets really frantic in the first two minutes before the midsection artistry. The melodramatic chaotic ending breakdown is probably one of the band's heaviest moments since Miss Machine.

Trivium – “Pull Harder On The Strings Of Your Martyr” (from “Ascendancy”, 2005)

11/10 (not exaggerating). Trivium's best and most popular song before "In Waves", displaying their diversity. It’s loaded with as much brutality and speed as melody. Yet another reason why I love this band so much!

Converge – “I Can Tell You About Pain” (from “The Dusk In Us”, 2017)

9/10. A pretty impressive song, especially in Bannon's apocalyptic delivery. Enough said!

Yet another great post-sludge metal album! 5/5. Cheers for the rec, Daniel! However, I won't immediately start listening to the rest of Neurosis' discography. I'm still an atmospheric sludge metal newbie (other than The Ocean), and tomorrow I plan on getting a few other band discographies, including those two other post-metal bands Cult of Luna and Solstafir. Those two bands would be a good starting point for me right now before I get to the further Neurosis side of atmospheric sludge bridge that I plan on crossing a few weeks later. I'm taking my slow time getting through what I call the "post-sludge elemental star":

The ultra-rare Nucleus demo by progressive-thrashers Vektor is finally found! Check it out for the band's earlier songs at their original form:

Thanks Xephyr, but I decided to PDF to JPG converter instead of Adobe. Then again, I think using the original PDF version is better because it's much less messy than flooding the thread with nearly a couple dozen pages. We'll see how it turns out when I try the JPG way...

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!

My thoughts on some of the tracks (including my suggested ones):

Ayreon – “Isis & Osiris” (from “Into The Electric Castle: A Space Opera”, 1998)

11/10 (not exaggerating). There's no better way to start this playlist with the beginning of a journey...Into the Electric Castle!! Ayreon was a special band during my high school years (not that I ever was in high school). That project along with Dream Theater were my gateways band to the Infinite realm of progressive metal. For that I say... Thank you, Arjen Lucassen! This is one of the greatest progressive metal pieces to appreciate. While this isn't the first album in the Ayreon project, Into the Electric Castle is the first to include not only members of more popular Dutch rock/metal bands but also from bands from a few other places outside the Netherlands. This has helped those vocalists and musicians take them further into their path to fame and would help younger artists follow the path. This can help you travel through the stars and learn more Ancient Egyptian mythology. Even after giving up on this group during my grand switch out of my earlier melodic epic metal taste, I still amazed at this masterpiece. Many of the vocalists sing their own characters but it's as if they're the ones telling the stories instead of narrator, especially Fish (Marillion) who plays the Highlander. The last album I've heard from Ayreon was The Source which was a greater album for me because during my great metal taste switch, while I was saying farewell to many of my biggest progressive/power metal influences, one of the other vocalists indirectly directed me to another progressive metal band in the extreme side (Tommy Rogers (Between the Buried and Me)). Yet after all these years abandoning Ayreon (except a couple album reviews), this song is still one of my favorites from the project and helps maintain its legacy. I would definitely wanna hear another Arjen Lucassen/Sharon den Adel collaboration. Since cats are attracted to Egyptian music, do you think if I have a pet cat, it would enjoy some parts of this song? Hmmm... Even the album cover drawing can draw me in. Forget Yes, Ayreon is true progressive music. And wow, 22 years after its release, this song is now on radio! This Spotify radio playlist, that is. I really enjoy the clean production, amazing arrangements, and a great plethora of melodic vocals. I'm pretty sure my friends and family would've had no knowledge of Ayreon if it wasn't for me finding them. I still can't believe this album came out so long ago, back in 1998. I think the instrumentation alone might've inspired non-metal artists like Brunuhville. And another connection with The Source is when in that album The Prophet mentions a "castle deep in space". Cool callback! So dump your Madonna and Phil Collins and try this epic. Thank you Arjen for this project, and thanks Daniel for including this song.

Leprous – “The Price” (from “The Congregation”, 2015)

8/10. Addictive and groovy and one of Leprous' most compelling songs, but The Congregation is the album is where the band is transitioning out of their avant-prog metal past to their accessible progressive rock present.

Pain Of Salvation – “Ashes” (from “The Perfect Element I”, 2000)

10/10. Pain of Salvation is another one of the more melodic progressive metal bands that first helped developed my journey into the Infinite realm. "Ashes" is another perfect song from a timeless masterpiece album! Once again I still love it even after giving up on this group during my grand switch out of my earlier melodic epic metal taste. This is quite a haunting song reminding me of a more progressive take on Type O Negative whose bassist/vocalist Peter Steele is one of metal's passed legends along with Death's Chuck Schuldiner but that's beside this point. The spine-shivering voice of Daniel Gildenlöw is a little strange but has great passion. You can practically mouth the lyrics! This is quite an awesome heartbreaking song. I'm starting to miss my melodic prog-metal phase from nearly 6 years ago, back in my "high school" years. The vibe is violent yet emotional. Similarly with Ayreon's The Source, I have not been in touch with Pain of Salvation since after listening to In the Passing Light of Day, another album of absolute perfection that made me grateful about Daniel Gildenlöw surviving the life-threatening flesh eating bacteria he suffered a couple years before that album. The chord progression of this song can be a little repetitive but it's dusted aside by the song's advantages including some of the best vocals that I've heard during my phase back then, which might remind OG prog-metal fans of Geoff Tate. Beautiful! The turn into the new millennium was a great period for this band along with Dream Theater who released their own concept album a year before this one. If you thought Daniel Gildenlöw was so young in this album, you should've stuck around 15 years before when he was in middle school and in a band called Reality. Anyway, I'm glad this song is on a Spotify playlist (this one) for a good amount of Spotify metalheads to hear. I love and dark and heavy this song is. It's times like this when I wish I can go back to that phase, but I guess it's too late now. I guess you can consider this a love song in the midst of a duel between God and Satan. I also miss when Daniel Gildenlöw's brother Kristoffer was in the band, he's quite the bass king. Its album's concept deals with sexual abuse, and I think I was handling heavy concepts slightly better than when I was first listening to After Forever's Invisible Circles. I was starting handled different heavy scenarios, and they were addictive. The Perfect Element would later have its own sequel, Scarsick. I thought my interest in this band was over after In the Passing Light of Day, but I guess I'm still there. I have two Daniels to thank; Daniel Gildenlöw for this creative music and Metal Academy's Daniel for including this song.

Fates Warning – “The Apparition” (from “The Spectre Within”, 1985)

9/10. Because of how great I think of the first 3 more melodic progressive metal songs in this playlist, I decided to listen to a song from a band that I've only listened to for an album review and never got around listening to more of them because of how old the band is, back to the mid-80s. "The Apparition" is very good and beautiful with some of the best progressive metal lyrics to reflect upon. This is a deep classic I love and might give me some slight influence for if I ever start my own metal band in the future. An amazing marvelous song, which even though the vocals can sound a bit stressed is helped out by the riffs. A progressive metal classic for the OG listeners!

Seventh Wonder – “The Black Parade” (from “Mercy Falls”, 2008)

10/10. This is from a concept album about a victim of a car crash who ends up in a mysterious world within his coma. You would have to listen to the album yourself to know the full story because I ain't gonna spoil it to you here. Its epilogue, "The Black Parade" starts aggressively before adding happy melodies. The chorus and keyboards are just epic! Perfect ending to a perfect album!!

Dream Theater – “The Ytse Jam” (from “When Dream & Day Unite”, 1989)

10/10. The true highlight of the debut of progressive metal masters Dream Theater. Some might call this the best progressive instrumental since Rush's "YYZ"! The memorable opening riff is exciting. There are some Arabian melodies along with great soloing. The bass is very audible and enjoyable.

Protest The Hero – “All Hands” (from “Palimpsest”, 2020)

8/10. In this endearing eccentric progressive metal tune, Protest the Hero's technical proficient arsenal shines through with the band's incredible ability on the harborside to engage the listener through the arrangement that never gets overwhelmed. Great song, but personally I would choose their epic single "The Canary".

Symphony X – “Nevermore” (from “Underworld”, 2015)

10/10. Symphony X was another of my favorite epic progressive metal bands from 5 or 6 years ago. This song and "Kiss of Fire" are my favorite songs in their recent album Underworld, having the note-tapping guitar skills of Michael Romeo and the monstrous drumming of Jason Rullo, the latter suffered heart failure a couple years before this album but I'm glad he survived. The lyrics and vocals combine perfectly with the guitar. The theme of this album is inspired by inspired by Dante's Inferno and Orpheus in the Underworld, and this song heavily references the number 3 used by Dante; three syllables, a three-note melodic phrase, and three references to three songs from the band's third album, The Divine Wings of Tragedy. Too bad it's not the album's third track, but almost everything else about this song is perfect and never disappoints. Though the lyrics are a little cliche, it helps keep the band's exciting throwback to their old stuff. Holy sh*t, this is great! The day Underworld came out was a great day for me. And I say "H*ll yeah" to the intro/outro riff! Even the bass does great progressive justice. With Underworld having masterpieces like this song, it's a shame they didn't record a live DVD concert during the album's tour, though they probably would have if it wasn't cut short by a year-long hiatus for Russell Allen to spend some time in his other band Adrenaline Mob and injuries he sustained in vehicular accident involving that band. Anyway, I noticed that this song was blocked in the Spotify playlist, but hey, that's what this album and YouTube is for! Symphony X is so underrated that I would be really happy if a future artist considers this band their influence. After the first royal metal generation of Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Dio, Symphony X should praise as metal's second generation royalty, unlike bands like High on Fire who think bicycles and drugs would give them royalty which...NO. It would be great if Symphony X perform live in my country. The band's awesome vocalist and brilliant musicians inspired me to keep believing in metal. Epic kick-A progressive metal, though I miss their early-2000s orchestration. Keep the good stuff coming Symphony X, you never disappoint me!

Solstafir – “Kold” (from “Kold”, 2009)

9/10. This is the title track of an album that I recently loved so much that I plan on getting the rest of the Solstafir discography soon. It crashes you through an icy wall of power chords while the tortured vocals of Aðalbjörn "Addi" Tryggvason wander through poetic delight. A superb song, though it's not at all like the grand epic progressive metal masterpiece that is Symphony X's "Nevermore".

Nevermore – “The Sound Of Silence” (from “Dead Heart In A Dead World”, 2000)

10/10. Speaking of Nevermore, you gotta check out their cover of the Simon & Garfunkel song, "The Sound of Silence". Who knew you can turn it into a death metal-sounding progressive/thrash tune with drilling riffs and a wonderfully gloomy theme!? That's what Nevermore did here!

Meshuggah – “Future Breed Machine” (from “Destroy Erase Improve”, 1995)

9/10. This great chaotic song is from the album that very well began piecing together the progressive subgenre djent. It starts with a bit of an apocalyptic atmosphere that sounds like robotic machines taking over the world; industrial noises for almost 30 seconds, then a piercing siren over a total headbanging onslaught. The djent knights rise!

I did a review, here's its summary:

From the northern island of Iceland comes the band Sólstafir! First starting as a pagan black/viking metal band, they soon began to shed away their North sound for a style more ambient and thematic. In this album Köld, the bleak coldness still remains while blowing into the imaginative landscapes of post-rock/metal. This is pretty much haunting black-ish post-metal, a bit of sunshine glowing in the peaks on depressive winter valleys where the band's home sound runs through every phrase and tone. 8 tracks, many of which are around 8 minutes plus a 4-minute hit and two 12-minute epics, thoroughly create a compelling journey through an environment of pale empty space. Köld is a brilliant album of haunting immortality and the finest hour for Sólstafir. A superb recommendation for fans of post-rock/black metal!

5/5

A killer song from Opeth's last metal album:

Another excellent album! 5/5. Cheers for the rec, Daniel!

Now before I start my thoughts on some tracks (including my suggested ones), I'd like to point out that the tracks I'm gonna list here are ones that I haven't listened to ever since my grand switch out of my initial epic metal taste, so my opinions for that songs might be a little... outdated? After all, it is tough for me to get back in touch with a big part of my metal interest I abandoned almost 3 years ago. And thanks again Daniel for a great playlist and accepting our suggestions. Anyway, onto my track thoughts:

After Forever – “Digital Deceit” (from “Invisible Circles”, 2004)

8/10. Hello again, After Forever! This song is very good, but the concept of its album Invisible Circles was pretty heavy for my symphonic/power metal taste 6 years ago, centering around quarrelsome families and psychological child abuse.

Epica – “The Imperial March (Live)” (from “The Classical Conspiracy”, 2017)

10/10. Meanwhile, former After Forever guitarist/harsh vocalist Mark Jansen's band Epica is having fun performing their own songs plus playing covers of famous operas and movie soundtracks, that show becoming part of their 2009 live album The Classical Conspiracy. They take on one of the most popular pieces from the Star Wars soundtrack and converted into epic heavy headbanging assault with no mercy. It is at the two and a half minute mark when they reach their epic peak. Total imperial genius!

Dark Moor – “The Dark Moor” (from “Dark Moor”, 2003)

9/10. I consider this song Dark Moor's theme because it's the title song of their title album and a great starting point for any first-time listeners of this band, which is a good reason to suggest the song. It's an absolute masterpiece. It doesn't reach its true perfection due to some spooky parts like at the 3 and a half minute mark (Gollum, what are you doing here?!), but the final verse and chorus that start at the 7 and a half minute mark remind you of what an amazing epic this is.

Twilight Force – “Hydra” (from “Dawn Of The Dragonstar”, 2019)

10/10. Twilight Force is, along with Gloryhammer, the last band I've listened to in my original epic metal taste before my grand move out, and that was in the turn from 2017 to 2018, so those two bands I've only listened to for a few months. And apparently I've skipped out on a lot since then like this new album Dawn of the Dragonstar. I kinda regret missing this album because of epic this song is! Another thing that has changed is the vocalist. After Christian Eriksson (Chrileon) left, he was replaced by Alessandro Conti (Allyon) whose previous band Luca Turilli's Rhapsody split up. Wow, a lot has changed from during my time away from epic metal! Conti's accent might make the lyrics a little hard to understand, but that doesn't matter as long as the song has its epicness. The music sounds like it was written by Conti in his time with Luca Turilli's Rhapsody but ended up getting used for this album, and it could make a good anime opening theme or another one of John Williams' soundtracks. The band still has their strength picked up from their previous album. The music is epic with gorgeous orchestration, so is the cover art that reminds me of Magic the Gathering. And holy sh*t, that nice melodic guitar solo is amazing! Twilight Force is probably one of the most orchestral/classical focused recent metal bands. Hail Twilight Force!! HAIL HYDRA!!!

Dragonland – “Starfall” (from “Starfall”, 2004)

9/10. Dragonland is probably the first ever power metal band I've listened to besides DragonForce and its spin-off band Power Quest. This is another great representation of power metal that deserves some play in other radios.

Blind Guardian – “Mirror Mirror” (from “Nightfall In Middle-Earth”, 1998)

10/10. My favorite Blind Guardian song, an epic kick-A tune from one of the greatest Middle-Earth themed albums on Earth! André Olbrich's guitar in the chorus is absolutely killer, so is the vocals of Hansi Kürsch that tell Lord of the Rings movies as greatly as those movies. This was a great song during my late teen years to help me "find a path out of the dark". This album's a year older than me and it's still going strong. It might even go well with some D&D games. I really miss those fantasy metal days, sounding as great as it did back then. Even the cover art is pretty epic. HAIL BLIND GUARDIAN!!!

DragonForce – “Through The Fire & Flames” (from “Inhuman Rampage”, 2006)

12/10 (not exaggerating). This. Is. It. This is the one song that completely started my metal interest. DragonForce's "Through the Fire and Flames"!! If it wasn't for this song, or for my dad and brother both finding it, I wouldn't have been interested in metal, or maybe I would via a different song. Yes, this is indeed my own metal "big bang" (NOT the K-pop boy band, the universal beginning I mean). From the intricate guitar lines and solo plus strange Pac-Man noises to the amazing vocals and fantasy lyrics, this song has burned away my horrid radio-pop future and replaced it with a glorious metal one. And I can't believe it was just 8 years ago when it all started. So thank you DragonForce, along with my dad and brother (the latter's birthday is today so it's a nice gift). Also thanks Daniel for helping me piece back together my epic metal taste and adding this song into the playlist. Once again you really saved the best for last!