The Playlist of Life --- Trollheart's resurrected Journal

Unknown Soldier · 03-16-2012, 05:44 AM

Hey Trollheart glad you like my comments and as I said before, this journel is a real goldmine as I've found somebody on here with a very similiar taste in rock.

Sure Roger Hodgson supplied the happier tones to Supertramp and his voice one of the most unique of its time, I forgot to mention the other classic track off Crime of the Century is the opening track "School" always a favourite of mine and I think of that album as one of the best prog albums of that era, sadly it never really gets recognized by proggers who are probably put off by the Supertramp name.

I've not listened to the new Cars album but with no Benjamin Orr, I've no real desire to do so, but its good to see Ric Ocasek back and bloody Todd Rundgren out

I've made a note of your Ric Ocasek page and will jump there and comment on it a bit later.

Anyway despite still being on about page 7 am briefly jumping to page 32 for the NWOBHM.

Page 32
First up what a great name Witches, Bitches, Maidens and Monsters

Praying Mantis: Great to see you've kicked off with Praying Mantis one of the most interesting of the NWOBHM, now I've constantly mentioned on MB that NWOBHM was extremely melodic and just not hard edged and Praying Mantis are the perfect example of that melodic feel and they were a band that sat perfectly between metal and AOR, their debut is an album that has recently grown on me and is a real gem and I love the tracks "Lovers to the Grave" and "Panic in the Streets". You've summed this band up perfectly with their constant rebirths, this is often the death knoll for most bands anyway.

Angel Witch: The debut album has to be in the top 5 best ever NWOBHM albums and I finally got around to buying it on CD recently as I saw it dirt cheap and brand new, again its melodic but it has a dark intensity about it (territory that Diamond Head also covered and you must listen to their debut album!!!) and when I was doing my NWOBHM reviews this album came up as one of the most popular by people looking at the thread and Kevin Heybourne was a great talent, it was mentioned that live he couldn't handle both vocal and guitar duties (I don't know how true that is) which is why a couple of years later the other vocalist was brought in, I never liked any of their other material and Angel Witch were sadly a band that never built off their classic debut.

Trepass: Now I've never heard of them and its always great when I see a band like this as I know most of the bands from the NWOBHM, even if I don't remember all the albums that well without re-listening, I'm really looking forward to listening to this band as well.

At the moment I'm listening to a lot of North-American metal bands that were around in the early 1980s at the time of the NWOBHM bands like Anvil, Rail and Riot etc who were very distinct to the grassroots sound of NWOBHM and focused more on what was then the traditional stadium style sound. I've kind of christened these bands as arena metal or proto-power metal, point is I think these bands provided a good balance to the bands of the NWOBHM.

As a footnote you need to listen to the debut Manilla Road album Invasion its a grassroots sounding metal album from 1980 by an American band but its unique in sound and totally different to the arena style metal sound that was around at that time

Anyways, will check out part two of this section next week and I'm going back now to page 8 and continuing from there.

03-16-2012, 05:44 AM	#11 (permalink)
Unknown Soldier Horribly Creative Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: London, The Big Smoke Posts: 8,265	Hey Trollheart glad you like my comments and as I said before, this journel is a real goldmine as I've found somebody on here with a very similiar taste in rock. Sure Roger Hodgson supplied the happier tones to Supertramp and his voice one of the most unique of its time, I forgot to mention the other classic track off Crime of the Century is the opening track "School" always a favourite of mine and I think of that album as one of the best prog albums of that era, sadly it never really gets recognized by proggers who are probably put off by the Supertramp name. I've not listened to the new Cars album but with no Benjamin Orr, I've no real desire to do so, but its good to see Ric Ocasek back and bloody Todd Rundgren out I've made a note of your Ric Ocasek page and will jump there and comment on it a bit later. Anyway despite still being on about page 7 am briefly jumping to page 32 for the NWOBHM. Page 32 First up what a great name Witches, Bitches, Maidens and Monsters Praying Mantis: Great to see you've kicked off with Praying Mantis one of the most interesting of the NWOBHM, now I've constantly mentioned on MB that NWOBHM was extremely melodic and just not hard edged and Praying Mantis are the perfect example of that melodic feel and they were a band that sat perfectly between metal and AOR, their debut is an album that has recently grown on me and is a real gem and I love the tracks "Lovers to the Grave" and "Panic in the Streets". You've summed this band up perfectly with their constant rebirths, this is often the death knoll for most bands anyway. Angel Witch: The debut album has to be in the top 5 best ever NWOBHM albums and I finally got around to buying it on CD recently as I saw it dirt cheap and brand new, again its melodic but it has a dark intensity about it (territory that Diamond Head also covered and you must listen to their debut album!!!) and when I was doing my NWOBHM reviews this album came up as one of the most popular by people looking at the thread and Kevin Heybourne was a great talent, it was mentioned that live he couldn't handle both vocal and guitar duties (I don't know how true that is) which is why a couple of years later the other vocalist was brought in, I never liked any of their other material and Angel Witch were sadly a band that never built off their classic debut. Trepass: Now I've never heard of them and its always great when I see a band like this as I know most of the bands from the NWOBHM, even if I don't remember all the albums that well without re-listening, I'm really looking forward to listening to this band as well. At the moment I'm listening to a lot of North-American metal bands that were around in the early 1980s at the time of the NWOBHM bands like Anvil, Rail and Riot etc who were very distinct to the grassroots sound of NWOBHM and focused more on what was then the traditional stadium style sound. I've kind of christened these bands as arena metal or proto-power metal, point is I think these bands provided a good balance to the bands of the NWOBHM. As a footnote you need to listen to the debut Manilla Road album Invasion its a grassroots sounding metal album from 1980 by an American band but its unique in sound and totally different to the arena style metal sound that was around at that time Anyways, will check out part two of this section next week and I'm going back now to page 8 and continuing from there.