Good melodic metal? (no harsh vocals)

~~MicShazam~~ · 07-31-2018, 02:00 PM

Armored Saint - March of the Saints

Pretty good. Based on this song, I'm not sure if I would love this album, but this is not bad at all. The solo had all sorts of old school cool going for it.

Metal Church - Hanging In The Balance[Full Album]

I know that I've listened to Metal Church albums that I thought were quite good, but this one is sort of half-and-half.
80's heavy metal bands didn't always handle the transition into a more "90's" sensibility super gracefully. This album seems to be an example of that trend.
The cover makes it looks a lot worse than it is, but I'm still not really sold. Like I said, I know better than to judge the band on this album alone.
For the record, I did listen to the whole damn thing.

Armored Saint - Symbol of Salvation[Full Album]

Honestly a little more glam metal in it's vibe than I'd prefer, but I still enjoyed it quite a bit. Good, solid metal!
I like the flamboyant guitar work and twin guitar harmonies a lot. I also liked that the singer had a slighly more "grunge" type of vocal approach than 80's metal bands would usually have.
This is a 90's album for this band and the singer has a noticeable touch of Chris Cornell about his delivery. This helps give the band some character, along with their particular brand
of guitar pyrotechnics.

I'm also getting Tony Martin era Black Sabbath vibes. Mostly due to the voice and singing style of the vocalist (he gets a bit bluesey at times), but also a little bit because of a few
of the vocal melodies. I don't consider this a bad thing. Black Sabbath's "Eternal Idol" was a good album and you need to listen to it again if you think that's crazy talk.

Nerdy side note: One of the tracks starts with a bassline that sounds like a particular track from the soundtrack of the original Wolfenstein 3D game. It was very common for game soundtrack
composers back then to be absolutely shameless in stealing from the artists that they liked and it is also common knowledge that the Doom soundtrack ripped off several tracks from
- among others - Slayer and Morgana Lefay (might be misremembering that last one, but point is there were more metal bands than Slayer being ripped off in that game).
Further bolstering my theory that the Wolfenstein 3D composer ripped off Armored Saint is of course that Armored Saint is metal, from 1991, and Wolfenstein is made by the team that
made Doom... and is from 1992. Not saying I'm right. I'm just saying that it seems quite possible.

Plankton · 07-31-2018, 02:39 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cfle0dYTKKc

~~MicShazam~~ · 07-31-2018, 02:40 PM

^Should be interesting. I have no idea what the **** that is!

Plankton · 07-31-2018, 03:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MicShazam

^Should be interesting. I have no idea what the **** that is!

They were a Chicago based band that I used to listen to. They only put out 2 albums, and I haven't heard the other one yet from '99. I used to hang with the band Zoetrope and the singer, who I'm still good friends with, just reminded me about that album last week. Him and the rest of the band members were all friends with the Slauter guys. Been meaning to post it up here since it fits the criteria.

grindy · 07-31-2018, 03:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grindy

The only melodic metal I need.
Interested to hear Mic's thoughts about the band.

*cough*

**Frownland** · 07-31-2018, 03:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grindy

*cough*

Nevermore is aight

~~MicShazam~~ · 07-31-2018, 03:25 PM

Death Angel - Act III 5."Discontinued"

Good pick. I had honestly dismissed this band as just being another faceless modern thrash metal band out of a thousand. This is way more interesting than anything I must have ever heard from the band. Reminds me of some of the proggier stuff Flotsam & Jetsam did in the 90's. Like for example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxVOnNVhxwY<--- My favorite song from that band, btw.

If you've got any other recs for this band, then I'm all ears.

Queensrÿche - Neue Regel

WARNING, major unedited ramble incoming. Love it or leave it!:

I've known about this band for years and years. They're prog metal giants, so how could I not? But, while I've given them a listen here and there, I've never really connected with their music. Part of that is because of Tate going by that particular "yelping" style of singing that several prog and thrash band vocalists did back then.
Like with most things, there's exceptions. For the second time in this thread, I want to bring up Flotsam & Jetsam. I quite dig the album where this song is from
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxVOnNVhxwY), despite the vocalist going for that exact style of singing.

If I may be allowed to go on a tangent here, that specific vocal style was always a bit weird to me. I generally like singersto be credibly expressing some real,
relatable emotions or states of mind.
This Geoff Tate style "yelping" thing is... a bit odd to say the least. It seemed to downright dominate some avenues of metal at a certain point in time, but I never really connected with it. James Labrie (of Dream Theater fame) is the main bad guy in this story, since he took this vocal style to an extreme, where absolutely NO LINE HE EVER SUNG could possibly register as being truly "felt". He always comes off as being fake to the maximum possible degree. I'm wise to the fact that most vocalists have to pretend to some degree, but that's not really the issue. I'm okay with knowing that the singer is acting, but I want that acting to be convincing. That's the difference.
To me, Tate and his luminaries are B movie actors, acting in films that could benefit from something more real (or at least a convincing lie (which is how actress Juliette Lewis once descdribed acting in an interview: It's not hard. You just have to lie.)) Now, for sure, B-movie acting can be great. I ****ing adore Brad Dourif in the cult movie classic Spontaneous Combustion. That's B-movie acting, but with a heavy load of energy and charisma. Geoff Tate doesn't quite pull that off.
He's not an active detriment to this music, but apart from having good vocal range, I'm not really sure why he's so adored by prog metal heads. He's better than James LaBrie.
Let's leave it at that.

Cool riffs, nice melodic progressions. Good stuff. I'd like to check out more from this album. I'll probably just listen to the whole thing. It's good, even if I don't love the Tate.

Queensrÿche - Empire lyrics

Yeah. See above. Good stuff.

Eyes Of A Stranger- Queensryche

Not the first time I'm hearing this, but the first time I'm really getting into it. I feel like I've been ignoring this band completely unwarranted. Shameful. The Tate is what it is, but this is basically quite good music.

~~MicShazam~~ · 07-31-2018, 03:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grindy

*cough*

I'm taking these strictly chronologically. Your pick is either next or quite close.

~~MicShazam~~ · 07-31-2018, 03:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Plankton

They were a Chicago based band that I used to listen to. They only put out 2 albums, and I haven't heard the other one yet from '99. I used to hang with the band Zoetrope and the singer, who I'm still good friends with, just reminded me about that album last week. Him and the rest of the band members were all friends with the Slauter guys. Been meaning to post it up here since it fits the criteria.

That's cool. What kind of band is Zoetrope?

~~MicShazam~~ · 07-31-2018, 04:10 PM

Ayreon - Welcome To The New Dimension (Into The Electric Castle) 1998

The track Zhanteimi chose here is basically an intro with some synths and a narrator. Doesn't do a lot for me to be honest.
Bit of a strange choice (accidental?), so I went ahead and picked a random track from the same album:

Ayreon - Isis And Osiris (Into The Electric Castle) 1998

Ayreon pretty much always has a bunch of vocalists guesting as various characters in these cheesy scifi-prog-concept-album-stories. Anneke Van Giersbergen figures fairly prominently in this song, so that automatically makes me like it more than I otherwise would have, but overall, it's not exactly up my alley. There's just something about how Ayreon usually approaches the telling of these stories that is, frankly, dorky as ****. If you've got a strong musical stomach, try listening to the entirety of that Dream Theater album named "The Astonishing".
Couldn't do it? Well, I thought so. This Ayreon album isn't quite like that, but it's the same problems that plague it, just not to the same extent. There's some legit good riffs and musical themes peppered around. I like this better than other things I've heard by Ayreon. It's just not really my thing. I don't hate it. At least it's got a dash of Giersbergen <3, and the production is pretty good. I like how the bass has some good presence and weight to it. Some of the guitar sounds and keyboard sounds play together quite well too.
Also, **** Russell Allen.

07-31-2018, 02:39 PM	#102 (permalink)
Plankton Just Keep Swimming... Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: See signature... Posts: 7,765	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cfle0dYTKKc __________________ See location...

07-31-2018, 03:25 PM	#107 (permalink)
~~MicShazam~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Aalborg Posts: 7,634	Death Angel - Act III 5."Discontinued" Good pick. I had honestly dismissed this band as just being another faceless modern thrash metal band out of a thousand. This is way more interesting than anything I must have ever heard from the band. Reminds me of some of the proggier stuff Flotsam & Jetsam did in the 90's. Like for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxVOnNVhxwY<--- My favorite song from that band, btw. If you've got any other recs for this band, then I'm all ears. Queensrÿche - Neue Regel WARNING, major unedited ramble incoming. Love it or leave it!: I've known about this band for years and years. They're prog metal giants, so how could I not? But, while I've given them a listen here and there, I've never really connected with their music. Part of that is because of Tate going by that particular "yelping" style of singing that several prog and thrash band vocalists did back then. Like with most things, there's exceptions. For the second time in this thread, I want to bring up Flotsam & Jetsam. I quite dig the album where this song is from (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxVOnNVhxwY), despite the vocalist going for that exact style of singing. If I may be allowed to go on a tangent here, that specific vocal style was always a bit weird to me. I generally like singersto be credibly expressing some real, relatable emotions or states of mind. This Geoff Tate style "yelping" thing is... a bit odd to say the least. It seemed to downright dominate some avenues of metal at a certain point in time, but I never really connected with it. James Labrie (of Dream Theater fame) is the main bad guy in this story, since he took this vocal style to an extreme, where absolutely NO LINE HE EVER SUNG could possibly register as being truly "felt". He always comes off as being fake to the maximum possible degree. I'm wise to the fact that most vocalists have to pretend to some degree, but that's not really the issue. I'm okay with knowing that the singer is acting, but I want that acting to be convincing. That's the difference. To me, Tate and his luminaries are B movie actors, acting in films that could benefit from something more real (or at least a convincing lie (which is how actress Juliette Lewis once descdribed acting in an interview: It's not hard. You just have to lie.)) Now, for sure, B-movie acting can be great. I **ing adore Brad Dourif in the cult movie classic Spontaneous Combustion. That's B-movie acting, but with a heavy load of energy and charisma. Geoff Tate doesn't quite pull that off. He's not an active detriment to this music, but apart from having good vocal range, I'm not really sure why he's so adored by prog metal heads. He's better than James LaBrie. Let's leave it at that. Cool riffs, nice melodic progressions. Good stuff. I'd like to check out more from this album. I'll probably just listen to the whole thing. It's good, even if I don't love the Tate. Queensrÿche - Empire lyrics Yeah. See above. Good stuff. Eyes Of A Stranger- Queensryche** Not the first time I'm hearing this, but the first time I'm really getting into it. I feel like I've been ignoring this band completely unwarranted. Shameful. The Tate is what it is, but this is basically quite good music. Last edited by MicShazam; 07-31-2018 at 03:46 PM.

07-31-2018, 02:00 PM	#101 (permalink)
~~MicShazam~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Aalborg Posts: 7,634	Armored Saint - March of the Saints Pretty good. Based on this song, I'm not sure if I would love this album, but this is not bad at all. The solo had all sorts of old school cool going for it. Metal Church - Hanging In The Balance[Full Album] I know that I've listened to Metal Church albums that I thought were quite good, but this one is sort of half-and-half. 80's heavy metal bands didn't always handle the transition into a more "90's" sensibility super gracefully. This album seems to be an example of that trend. The cover makes it looks a lot worse than it is, but I'm still not really sold. Like I said, I know better than to judge the band on this album alone. For the record, I did listen to the whole damn thing. Armored Saint - Symbol of Salvation[Full Album] Honestly a little more glam metal in it's vibe than I'd prefer, but I still enjoyed it quite a bit. Good, solid metal! I like the flamboyant guitar work and twin guitar harmonies a lot. I also liked that the singer had a slighly more "grunge" type of vocal approach than 80's metal bands would usually have. This is a 90's album for this band and the singer has a noticeable touch of Chris Cornell about his delivery. This helps give the band some character, along with their particular brand of guitar pyrotechnics. I'm also getting Tony Martin era Black Sabbath vibes. Mostly due to the voice and singing style of the vocalist (he gets a bit bluesey at times), but also a little bit because of a few of the vocal melodies. I don't consider this a bad thing. Black Sabbath's "Eternal Idol" was a good album and you need to listen to it again if you think that's crazy talk. Nerdy side note: One of the tracks starts with a bassline that sounds like a particular track from the soundtrack of the original Wolfenstein 3D game. It was very common for game soundtrack composers back then to be absolutely shameless in stealing from the artists that they liked and it is also common knowledge that the Doom soundtrack ripped off several tracks from - among others - Slayer and Morgana Lefay (might be misremembering that last one, but point is there were more metal bands than Slayer being ripped off in that game). Further bolstering my theory that the Wolfenstein 3D composer ripped off Armored Saint is of course that Armored Saint is metal, from 1991, and Wolfenstein is made by the team that made Doom... and is from 1992. Not saying I'm right. I'm just saying that it seems quite possible.

07-31-2018, 02:40 PM	#103 (permalink)
~~MicShazam~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Aalborg Posts: 7,634	^Should be interesting. I have no idea what the **** that is!

07-31-2018, 04:10 PM	#110 (permalink)
~~MicShazam~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Aalborg Posts: 7,634	Ayreon - Welcome To The New Dimension (Into The Electric Castle) 1998 The track Zhanteimi chose here is basically an intro with some synths and a narrator. Doesn't do a lot for me to be honest. Bit of a strange choice (accidental?), so I went ahead and picked a random track from the same album: Ayreon - Isis And Osiris (Into The Electric Castle) 1998 Ayreon pretty much always has a bunch of vocalists guesting as various characters in these cheesy scifi-prog-concept-album-stories. Anneke Van Giersbergen figures fairly prominently in this song, so that automatically makes me like it more than I otherwise would have, but overall, it's not exactly up my alley. There's just something about how Ayreon usually approaches the telling of these stories that is, frankly, dorky as **. If you've got a strong musical stomach, try listening to the entirety of that Dream Theater album named "The Astonishing". Couldn't do it? Well, I thought so. This Ayreon album isn't quite like that, but it's the same problems that plague it, just not to the same extent. There's some legit good riffs and musical themes peppered around. I like this better than other things I've heard by Ayreon. It's just not really my thing. I don't hate it. At least it's got a dash of Giersbergen <3, and the production is pretty good. I like how the bass has some good presence and weight to it. Some of the guitar sounds and keyboard sounds play together quite well too. Also, ** Russell Allen.