okay... I would have gotten to this sooner... but I got married this last week and it's been crazy! So now that things have finaly settled down, I can come back over and chat it up with you fine metal heads! B)
<!--QuoteBegin-The Professor+--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>
QUOTE (The Professor)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Oh man - name my US metal faves? I mean - do you have a couple of hours to spare?
I agree with Michael, though, for us it's a bit puzzling why Americans love the Euro-stuff so much, whereas European metalheads tend to hold US metal in much higher regard. Although... are you familiar with, for instance, the British band ShadowKeep? They are as US metal as they come and produced two truly awesome full-lengths plus a great self-financed mini-CD. For me, they're right up there with the likes of Helstar, Watchtower, Heir Apparent, Leatherwolf, Warlord and Sanctuary.
As for me, there's some bands I lost faith in along the way (Queensryche after 'Promised land', Metallica after 'And justice for all'), there's some I never even really liked (Megadeth being one example). But there's so much good stuff around if you dig a bit deeper, so for me it's always been a question of concentrating on the glass half full, you know There's Jag Panzer, Born Of Fire, Ignitor (new band with an amazing female singer), Talamasca, Defyance, Visionary, Ravensthorn, Metal Church, Zero Hour, Power Of Omens, the criminally underrated Ion Vein, the reformed Attacker and Tyrant's Reign, and there's yourself, of course
Here in The Netherlands we've seen a couple of amazing releases in the progressive-power category over the last year or so: Symmetry's 'A soul's roadmap' (excellent concept album with a rather dark fantasy slant), the debut CD by Sun Caged, plus the unexpected joy of another band kicking off with a great first one: Silent Edge. It's called 'The eyes of the shadow' and has the added value of some neo-classical elements. What all these bands have in common is the excellent production (despite the Symmetry-CD being a self-financed deal) and a great vocalist.[/quote]
Okay Professor, it's your turn! (..and DarkCherub!)
The good:
Shadowkeep - Oh yes, I'm very familiar with this band; their last album
is really good! I believe I've meet one of the band members (the former
singer I think) at progpower USA two years ago. It's true; they do have
a US metal sound, which is pretty cool considering they are a British
band.
Watchtower - A lot of their sound came across in our last album, these
guys blew my mind when I first heard them back when "Control &
Resistance" was released. The only other band I've heard that has come
close to them is Spiral Architect. I sure wish Watchtower would kick out
the new album they've been promising the last two years... I guess
Spastic Ink will do for now.
Leatherwolf - the triple Axe attack!!!! Their first two albums are
hands-down the best the band recorded and are absolute classics. "Street
Ready" was pretty good as well, but you could see they were taking a
turn towards a more rock-oriented style for radio airplay. Should be
interesting to hear Jeff Martin (racer X) on vocals now.
Warlord - I had "Deliver Us" on cassette for years, and I nearly wore
it out from overplaying it, which at the time, made me nervous because
it was such a rare album to find in the early 90's since it was out of
print. The last album they did with Jocham (Hammerfall) on vocals wasn't
too bad, but old warlord had a certain magic in the music that can't be
recreated.
The bad:
Metallica - ...how the mighty have fallen. I don't even pay attention to
this band anymore.
Queensryche - What happened to these guys!? They were amazing! With the
recent interviews with Geoff stating "they were never really metal" and
other silly remarks, has made it hared for me to listen to their older
albums... It's very depressing. And now they are recording Operation
Mindcrime:Part II? Hmmmm... I am VERY skeptical about this. They will
have to get a time machine and see why their "metal" material was so
much better to ensure the next mindcrime is a winner.
The others:
Born of Fire, Ignitor, Ravensthorn, Tyrants Reign, Talamasca - not
familiar with these bands... But I'm going to be looking into them now!
Defyance - a pretty good band with Lance King (Pyramaze, Ex-Balance of
Power) on vocals. The production reminds me a lot of Lance's other
projects. Very cool band indeed!
Visionary - are we talking about THE visionary? The metal brothers from
my hometown?! Man, I LOVED these guys; especially there last album
(although it was very different from their first one). When their debut
album came out, they were our hero's when we were all in other metal
bands here. We run into Steve Yates (guitarist) every once in a while,
he's awesome to hang with. The biggest disappointment is that Visionary is
no more... And they have no plans of ever reforming due to so many
personal issues among the band members and because everyone wants to
take the band in several different directions. Very sad, as they are
still one of the best metal bands to come out of Utah.
Metal Church - ohhhh... Start, start the fire! Bring down the HAMMER!
Just saw these guys live a month ago with their new singer... They sound
brilliant live! I still need to get their new album. Believe it or not,
I enjoyed the Mike Howe material best, "Human Factor" is still my
favorite album from these guys.
Power of Omens - very underrated technical progressive metal band. Very
nice guys, and former labels mates of ours! I certainly hope it doesn't
take another 4 years for them to release their next album.
Zero Hour - not only am I a huge fan of this band, but I'm good friends
with the Tipton brothers. It's funny, I will be flying out to the Bay
Area for my honeymoon in a week, and will probably be meeting up with
them when I arrive, assuming they are going to Nightwish as well. I
have some pretty cool stories about these guys.... And I can't wait for
their new album to come out, it's taken forever, and it's almost ready
to be released!
Ion Vein - I know these guys as well... Their guitarist Chris is a real
treat to hang out with. Again...I have some funny stories here. Their
last album was a huge improvement for these guys, and I can't understand
why they can't secure a solid label in the North American territories.
Neil Kernon, another friend, did a great job working with these guys as
well.
Symmetry - I've heard a song from theses guys on an internet radio
station a while back... Haven't got their album(s) yet. Very cool stuff!
Sun Caged - mind blowing stuff!!!! I thought Lemur Voice was good, but
Marcel has proven that he is a force to be reckoned with once again with
Sun Caged.
Silent Edge - I still need to check them out.
<!--QuoteBegin-The Professor+--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>
QUOTE (The Professor)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->So, there's tons of stuff to (re)discover! In America, it seems to me, bands hardly seem to be aware of eachother or tend to be very focused locally. Which is understandable, given that it's a big country. But it all seems so fractured at times and I often wonder where all these great US underground power and progressive metal bands come from. I mean, if there's so little communication, it just seems weird that those particular styles still thrive, against all media odds.[/quote]
Yeah, this is often the case, but I feel that I am a little different
(well, outside of the rest of my band) as I am a huge metal fan and
collector myself and really don't think of myself as a musician, just a
metal fan who likes playing metal music! I try to listen to as much
metal music as possible, locally and internationally. In fact I help run
<a href='http://www.utahmetal.com' target='_blank'>UtahMetal.com</a>
where I do monthly articles and reviews on local bands in our scene and
as well as national metal acts in helping spread the word of true heavy
metal to the local metal fans here at home, which is still very small. I think
that there is a scale in which most bands in the U.S. interact, the more
popular ones are aware of each other and good friends most of the time
from playing shows/tours/festivals together. The smaller,
unsigned/independent bands are the same way, but there are SO many metal
acts in the U.S. and there are so many miles and states between
each band... It's hard for everyone to know each other or know of each
others existence sometimes unless they are making some serious waves
with their music in the underground.
<!--QuoteBegin-The Professor+--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>
QUOTE (The Professor)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Do you have some sort of 'metal network' that extends beyond the border of your own state or is it very much a local/regional affair (apart from the Sacred Metal Board, that is)?[/quote]
There is a small network amongst friends and other bands regionally, but
we also know many bands across the country that we try to network with,
most of them are on the west coast in California, Colorado, Arizona,
Texas and such. I post on a few other forums, most of tham at UltimateMetal.com (where our band's forum is located) as well as a few others, which many other bands post on, so there is some networking there. I personally try to stay in contact with many bands we are friends with or have played shows with in the U.S., as well as stay incontact with our fans. To be quite honest, we are very UN-popular in our home state of Utah (no one likes us here at home because we don?t sound like NU-Metal), but our album sales have been fairly decent everywhere else in the U.S. .... It is very strange. But, a majority of our sales & fans are located in Germany! So again, like this thread states, it's amazing how many European (or more specifically German) metal fans enjoy American metal bands more than American's themselves!
\m/
Dustin
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