1.Pyramaze: Melancholy Beast
Diving deeper into this amazing and diverse record has been a great experience! With their own special blend, lending elements from Iron Maiden, Iced Earth and Blind Guardian, Pyramaze have succeeded in creating something unique and bewitching!
2.Stratovarius: Stratovarius
A pleasant surprise! It really is different from most of their stuff, still maintaining some classic Strato trademarks, not alienating old fans. More melancholic and thoughtful, putting the hysterically happy vibe, which used to be too much, in the background. It really suits the Finns with a more mature approach. Look out for a full review soon!
3.Samael: Reign Of Light
For every new album, a million fresh ideas, improvements and surprises! Going from Black Metal, over almost electronic Darkwave, and now blending stuff like Arabian and Oriental music into their sound, Samael never fail to do something original on each release. Each new release is to Samael a musical playground, unfolding new sides of their talents.
4.Skullview: Legends Of Valor
Raw, old school Heavy Metal with lots of balls! And man, what a screamer that singer was! This debut showed what potential the band had already from the start, and still they are almost completely unknown today. Well, at least this and the follow-up Kings Of The Universe gave me a serious kick in the ass.the good way, of course!
5.Obituary: World Demise
A Death Metal classic! Seeing the reunited band play at Wacken proved they still got it: Obituary still rock harder than most!
6.Wizard: Magic Circle.
The German warriors keep flying the flag for True Metal, and the old school. Not their most brilliant release, Magic Circle has it's moments of might, melody and Metallic madness!
7.Stormwitch: Priest Of Evil (best of)
Cool, midpaced 80's Metal with the charismatic Andy Mück on vocals.
8.Hard Time: Promo.
Croatian Hard Rock with sparks! Seeing the band live at Wacken this year was an enjoyable experience. They had such a huge joy of playing live and gave it all they had with big smiles on their faces, that the atmosphere was lifted to an intense level. Musically we are dealing with classic styled Hard Rock (Kiss, Alice Cooper comes to mind) spiced up with a bit of blues and harder Metal. Not bad!
9.Blind Guardian: Nightfall In Middle Earth
Who can deny the magic of Blind Guardian? This album succeeded in creating the most amazing atmospheres. Tracks like Noldor (Dead Winter Reigns), Nightfall, Blood Tears and Mirror Mirror can only be described one way: pure magic!
10.Dream Evil: Dragonslayer
I know a lot of people disagree (even the band members themselves, it seems), but to me the 90's Power Metal wave have seen few albums that can match this monster! So wonderfully catchy, melodic and heavy at the same time.and, filler free!
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