Maidenfans Album Club: Purest of Pain - Solipsis

Göteborg more like, spike. Rookie mistake but no biggie buddy.
Actually it is Hisingen where I grew my horns and thorns - nevertheless smashing album.
As a native English speaker, umlauts elude me. Why do you need a thing to tell you where the letters sound different? Just memorize all the differences, that's what we do in English.

And cool, isn't that one of the islands near/part of the city? So more like your neighbourhood.
 
As a native English speaker, umlauts elude me. Why do you need a thing to tell you where the letters sound different? Just memorize all the differences, that's what we do in English.

And cool, isn't that one of the islands near/part of the city? So more like your neighbourhood.

Umlauts are cool like that buddy. And in Denmark they have ø to make the sound more pronounced.
An island indeed, and also part of Göteborg.
You familiar with Graveyard?
 
Umlauts are cool like that buddy. And in Denmark they have ø to make the sound more pronounced.
An island indeed, and also part of Göteborg.
You familiar with Graveyard?
Not in the slightest, but I'll likely listen to the album you recommended, I generally listen to all the recommendations.
 
So, Winter Ethereal. As far as the music goes, this is leaps and bounds over the previous two albums we've had. The music is fantastic. The thing is, the album has nine songs and is over an hour long. There's really not enough, variation I guess, between the songs. They just sort of run together and it felt like an eternity before it ended. Not a bad thing, per se, but it doesn't really warrant the runtime, at least for me. Would make for good background music, though.

The other thing is that I don't like John Arch. He can't keep a line straight and sounds like he's all over the place in an attempt to be theatrical. In fact, I'm surprised he's a native English speaker because, to my ears, he really doesn't sound like it. He's got a really weird style of singing that at time is like a very off James LaBrie mixed with Bruce Dickinson intonations and covered in autotune. Is there some vocal effect on his voice? I genuinely can't tell. At the very least, this is how he strikes me. Maybe I just really have tin ears.

Long and short of it: great music, blah singer, a bit too long, but nice to just have in the background.
 
Some years are bigger than others for metal. What is the most recent year you consider to be a landmark metal year?
2015 was the year I got into metal, so maybe I was just paying attention better back then, but I think the overlap of 2015-2016 was a pretty big time for the genre. Iron Maiden, Ghost, the Big 4, and several other big names were all releasing albums and it was a pretty exciting time for a new guy like me. 2019 seems like it won't be half bad either.
 
The other thing is that I don't like John Arch. He can't keep a line straight and sounds like he's all over the place in an attempt to be theatrical. . . . He's got a really weird style of singing that at time is like a very off James LaBrie mixed with Bruce Dickinson intonations and covered in autotune. Is there some vocal effect on his voice? I genuinely can't tell.
This made me chuckle, because I had an instant negative reaction to the vocals too. Sort of an affectation when transitioning between words/syllables -- a stronger singer would just hit the damn note. Of course, I've only heard a couple tracks so far.
 
I liked Arch quite a bit on Spectre Within and Awaken the Guardian. Can't wait to listen to this one.

I nominate Bathory - Blood on Ice. When people retroactively look at Bathory, Blood on Ice sometimes gets forgotten in lieu of their Viking tinged trifecta. My friends that are into Bathory don't enjoy this album too much, although critics of it online are much fewer. To me, it's just a notch under Hammerheart. Stunningly beautiful album.
 
I nominate Bathory - Blood on Ice. When people retroactively look at Bathory, Blood on Ice sometimes gets forgotten in lieu of their Viking tinged trifecta. My friends that are into Bathory don't enjoy this album too much, although critics of it online are much fewer. To me, it's just a notch under Hammerheart. Stunningly beautiful album.
Well I prefer the older stuff - up to and including Twilight Of The Gods, but I promise that if Blood is chosen I'll give it a few serious listens. Maybe after the huge disappointment 23 years ago I might find something in it.
 
Well I prefer the older stuff - up to and including Twilight Of The Gods, but I promise that if Blood is chosen I'll give it a few serious listens. Maybe after the huge disappointment 23 years ago I might find something in it.
So you were around when it was released? Curious to know what the general fan reaction was around that time. And yes, Blood on Ice doesnt have a strong opener or closer, but its strengths lie in the middle. There are some absolutely beautiful melodies in The Lake and Woodwoman. Man of Iron is a sensitive song that plays on Quorthons imperfect English pronunciations and singing abilities. One Eyed Old Man is a weird punk rocker on there that I love too.

Thats the thing though, theres no Asa Bay's, or A Fine Day to Die's or any Twilight of the God's. Is it lacking that singular epic that would've put it in the "Bathory hall of greatness", but it is still a great album.
 
So you were around when it was released? Curious to know what the general fan reaction was around that time. And yes, Blood on Ice doesnt have a strong opener or closer, but its strengths lie in the middle. There are some absolutely beautiful melodies in The Lake and Woodwoman. Man of Iron is a sensitive song that plays on Quorthons imperfect English pronunciations and singing abilities. One Eyed Old Man is a weird punk rocker on there that I love too.

Thats the thing though, theres no Asa Bay's, or A Fine Day to Die's or any Twilight of the God's. Is it lacking that singular epic that would've put it in the "Bathory hall of greatness", but it is still a great album.
Don't know about general fan reaction, I remember mine and those of my pals who were into such music, and it was basically huge disappointment mixed with some desperate attempt to find at least something likeable about it. After the awful Requiem and Octagon there was some hope new album would be in the vein of Blood Fire Death and Hammerheart (especially since it was supposed to be 1980s material); I remember it sounded pretty pathetic to us. Haven't heard it for more than 20 years now so don't remember much detail, will probably give it a listen regardless if chosen or not.
 
Discussion is welcome :)

I'm about halfway through my second listen of Winter Ethereal. So far, I'm really enjoying it, quality construction and build. It's prog, which isn't always my jam, but I like it more than pretty much every Dream Theater album.
 
Going to be listening to Winter Ethereal today. This is my first real day off, sorry for not being that active in this thread. It's probably my favorite thread on here right now. There doesn't seem to be that much buzz about this current album in this thread, so that doesn't make me too excited for it, but hey I'm open for anything.
 
Also excited to talk about my recent favorite years for heavy metal! 2010-2015 had some heavy hitters in them!
 
I'll be honest, I'm not making it past the first song on this album. I like Fates Warning and Matheos, but Arch's voice drives me absolutely crazy. It's like Bruce constantly singing at the top of his range but without Bruce's vocal ability.

The music is quite good, but I just can't stomach a whole album.
 
Well, yes, Arch's voice gets annoying pretty fast. I hate that they layered all the digital effects on his voice for this release. It sounds awful. I made it halfway into Wrath of the Universe before I had to turn it off. I'll muster up the strength the put it back on sometime today and report back.
 
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