Metal Reviews

As opposed to what? All these so called true bands are also mainstream! Or do you think all these "true" smurf bands of the late 90's are REAL metal? They may be technically skilled, but they don't have even half the amount of balls required to play heavy metal! Or let me put it to you this way : Let's take Dragon-x (in x place any word, there's bound to be a "True" band called that) and play one of their happy, merry go round, lalala, keyboard infested songs. Then play Manowar and tell me if Dragon-x are heavy metal.

Anyway, like I said, just a term invented to promote a trend in the late 90's. There's no such thing as true metal. Even Manowar who invented the term call themselves simply "heavy metal". Just because the media rape the words HEAVY METAL to label all these hardcore/nu crap, doesn't mean we shouldn't be using them to identify the bands they should be identifying in the first place!

Now let's not get too carried away here. Most of us here can agree that the label true metal is really a crock of shit, but as far as this alleged flower power not being REAL metal? Last time I checked, it was songwriting, not balls, that influenced how heavy metal sounded. Please, don't limit the boundries of heavy metal to such a specific list of requirements like so many others. I thoroughly enjoy the fact that such a broad range of talents and sounds fall under the genre heavy metal, because it shows that metal as a genre in general is a large fucking tent, accepting many facets that can all arguably fall under one description... great fucking music.

To answer your question, yes, those smurf bands are just as much metal as any other band you could list here. Just of another kind, is all.

I think I'm gonna have to agree with Asgardlord here......a lot of the "true metal" bands that came out in the 90's and that are still making music now a days....have perverted traditional metal into this super flowery fantasy laiden genre that has more cheeze than balls. They should just call themselves metal bands because there is a definate absence of heavy. If you compare Hammerfall or Edguy to....oh I dont know...lets say Liege Lord or Riot, or fuck even Crimson Glory, you'll notice that they are ten times heavier than the crop of pussy bands coming out now a days. Thats not to say that there arent a few of those flowery bands that I dont like, I think Labyrinth used to be great and even Hammerfalls first few albums were pretty good, and Nocturnal Rites as well...even though they fall more into the NWOBHM category. Heaviness is not well represented in the traditional metal field anymore and thats a big problem. Melodic and heavy don't need to be seprated I dont know why bands can't do this without falling into quite possibly the shittiest metal genre, that being melodeth.

How is that they are mainstream.Last time I checked bands like Lost Horizon,Hammerfall and others weren't on MTV,played on every radio station,adorned on the covers of Hit Parader and Circus or winning grammy awards for best new band or whatnot so how can you say they are mainstream.

And yes I do believe that bands like Hamnerfall,Lost Horizon,etc are real metal and compared to the bullshit being played on the radio stations across the states then it's as real as it gets.

It's HEAVY metal! The term says it all! Despite the technique, good songwriting etcetc, it's still aggressive music at its core! I'm not limiting anything, and I'm not talking about ALL true bands. Like Terror said, Hamsterfal (:P) per say are a pretty decent band, I enjoy both their first albums, but please don't tell me that Sonata Smurfica per say are real heavy metal! I respect their great musicianship, but if this is heavy metal then what would you call Jag Panzer, Liege Lord, or Manowar? I like Bon Jovi, should I call Bon Jovi heavy metal just because they use guitars and I happen to like them?



Bands that sell 300.000 plus copies, make platinum albums in Europe etcetc are not underground. And you've opened a HUGE topic! How misinformed the average american metalhead is! You consider all these mediocre or plain good European bands REAL, GREAT and UNDERGROUND metal, when your own country has THOUSANDS of divine acts the majority of american metalheads ignore. Did you know that Medieval Steel, a HUGE epic band are curretnly reunited, re-released their ep and are currently saving to release a full length album? Did you know Deadly Blessing, another legendary band are pretty much in the same situation? Did you know that U.S. power gods attacker are pretty much paying out of their pockets to record their stuff right now? That Overlorde released the power metal record of the century through a GREEK label? Pls don't tell me that Hammerfall are underground when their records reach the top ten in Germany, while Liege Lord are reunited and can't land a record deal!

Holy terror back me up here

Your definition of mainstream is different then mine.It takes more then album sales to make it mainstream.My defintion of mainstream is exposure.You have to make it all over the world that includes the US not just in your own country.Just because Hammerfall is popular in Germany and Stratovarius is popular in Finland doesn't make them mainstream.You have to be on every damn radio station all over,you have to be played on MTV all the time and you have to adorn on every metal magazine to be considered mainstream IMHO but that's just my opinion on the matter.

And are you telling me that all underground metal is REAL metal compared to bands like Hammerfall.That's way off base.Now me personally I think that all metal bands from underground to bands like Manowar are real metal compared to the false metal crap like Slipknot which I don't even associate with metal at all.That's the general thing I'm trying to say that mainstream nu-meta false metal or whatever you want to call it is not true metal compared to what's overseas and in the underground scene.

Yes, I can see what you're saying, and I totally agree. I never rate bands according to their popularity, just based on their music. But your definition of mainstream is plain wrong! Let me give you an example : I'm from Cyprus. Slipknot get zero exposure here. Does that mean Slipknot are underground because they don't get airplay in Cyprus? Stratovarius get thousands, and thousands of dollars from the Finish market, and tons of exposure. That makes them commercially succesful, therefore not underground. The fact that they don't get airplay by the us mtv doesn't mean much, nowadays the internet provides easy access to pretty much everything! Again, take me for instance, I'm from a small island in the meditteranean and I'm here talking to you about some cult U.S. band that released 500 ep's on vinyl twenty years ago, and I've never heard a single note of heavy metal played on tv here! So the media isn't the dominant factor it used to be twenty years ago.

But like I said, we don't disagree on something, I'm just trying to give you motives to search a little deeper. Again, I don't consider every sorry ass, poorly produced underground piece of trash as true. Like I already said popularity isn't a factor for me. It's just that more often than not, underground bands don't sacrifice their identity or personal sound to sell more records. That's why they are usually more genuine (as you can see I'm trying to avoid the word true ).

Let's just say we agree to disagree and leave it at that shall we.

Just be glad you don't live in the states and have to hear garbage like Simple Plan,Slipknot and other crappy music shitheads on the radio all the time it's enough to drive you nuts!!!!!!.

Now if you will excuse me I'm going to play some Helloween

Hehe agreed!

You Americans and Europeans think yourself lucky. Our metal scene is quite big, but it is so criminally under-rated and ignored that it becomes frustrating trying to search for local talent. there are plenty of great australian bands, just have a look at the link below:


http://www.metalofoz.com/


There are plenty of awesome, original Australian metal bands including Alchemist, Blood Duster, Astriaal, The Furor, Minus Life, etc, but the scene is clogged up with crappy hardcore bands. Damn them all! (the hardcore ones) Ask any Australian metalhead, and they may have a vague idea of the scene, probably a third have a good understanding of Austrlian metal. The rest, and all metalheads my age and under will just tell you to fuck off if you ask about Aussie bands.

The only bands that achieve any sort of success in Australia are the ones who have an Americanised sound. The Austrlian media refuses to play anything that doesn't sound like American music. A few pop artists in Austrlia are starting to break from this trend but in the metal scene the more successful bands are the ones who copied a sound from somewhere.

Our major metal festival is Metal For The Brain, which usually showcases most of the best metal we have to offer. But as of late I've noticed trillions of crappy generic As-I-Lay-Dying style metalcore bands cropping up, making the challenge for original bands like Godnose impossible.

The 'Full Metal Racket' show I mentioned in a previous post is the only way (besides Internet, street press and word of mouth) which Australian metalheads can learn about their own scene. When I got into metal I went into a phase where I only listened to aussie music, and it's safe to say we have our share of crapp over here, but many brilliant bands as well.

Having said that, I do mostly listen to American and European metal, but whenever it is possible (which it isn't in the small town I live in ) I try to pick up something that's made in Oz. I recommend giving Australian metal a chance and letting me know what you like. Dungeon and Atomizer rock!

Australian metal rocks! Black Steel and Pegazus are great bands! Thnx for the link, I'll deffinetely check it out!

should i make a new topic in Helheim about Australian metal?

Thanks to Manowar I missed out on a lot of the really cool hair metal bands of the 80s. How could I have wasted my youth without WASP! Blackie! I'm sorrrrrryyyyyyy!!!!!

Wasp aren't hair metal! They're pure heavy metal n' roll! I had the joy of watching them live a few months ago in Greece and they still rule on stage!

And by all means do create that aussie metal topic! Enlighten us!

he's right....Liege Lord is so fucking awesome. Too bad they can't find a record deal. Every one of their albums is awe-inspiring metal. Its funny how unlike other bands....they actually got heavier as they progressed. Master Control is thrashing power metal at its best!!

I consider Liege Lord's debut, alongside Jag Panzer's Ample Destruction to be the cornerstones of U.S. power metal, and hugely influential in their own right. Actually on the first issue of the Forgotten Scroll fanzine we did an interview with Liege Lord, who at the time did some gigs, but I haven't heard any news lately so I guess it's safe to say they have still to make any progress. A damn shame too. But on the bright side, Breaker are recording a new album!

Fuck I'm now getting into this "must be x-heavy and have a guitar-keyboard ratio of x to be considered Metal" nonsense again.

Well, metal is a guitar-based style of music...

I actually meant to type "not" instead of "now"

So I'm not responding.

There are two kinds of metal. There's "True Metal" and there's "Tr00 Metal." "True Metal" is simply real metal like Slayer, (old) Metallica, and pretty much any other band you'd find on a site like this.

"Tr00 Metal", on the other hand, refers a barbaric group of elitist pigs who scurry about with their Manowar tee-shirts on horses with lit torches in hand, shouting "Death To False Metal!!!" while incinerating anything and everything that might be considered "false." Nobody knows where they came from or how they came to be. They were just somehow born in the midst of the ashes of Black Sabbath.