Metal track(s) of the day.

Since I've been getting back into metal in the past few weeks, I thought I'd share some cool tracks I come across with y'all.

For today, I'll start it off with some awesome NWOBHM.

Pagan Altar - The Black Mass


This band is very doomy, with some strange vocals. I had heard of them before today and tried to get into them, but I just couldn't. (I had the same dilemma with Witchfinder General as well). But today, something just clicked. Their s/t debut is generally regarded as their best album, and is the first one I checked out. Highly recommended.

Never even heard of this band, didn't realize there was another Sabbath-clone during that era. It's seriously lo-fi, sounds like the vocals were recorded with a very inexpensive dynamic mic in a room without proper sound dampening. I dig the guitar sound, the drums sound like cardboard boxes however. I definitely think Witchfinder General is alot better, but there is some charm to this despite the inept recording.

The guitarist saves it.

They've recorded two more full length lp's in the past couple of years that are held in pretty high regard with the "tr00 kvlt" metal-heads. I've only heard a scattered few songs from those though.

This one appears to be pretty good production-wise, compared to the debut, anyway.

I've heard OF this band over the years but never actually heard'em. They sounded pretty good till that singer opened his mouth. YIKES!

Yeah Freddy, that was my original reaction as well. Definitely an acquired taste.

For today, here's some Satan's Host.





One of my favorite metal vocalists, Harry Conklin sings for them on their 2 most recent releases. He was a part of the original lineup in the 80's (they released one horribly produced album, Metal from Hell) he then left to join Titan Force.

Over the years they changed their sound to a black metal-influenced death metal style, which gained them even less recognition. After the disbanding of Jag Panzer, Conklin rejoined the band, giving them a much needed push in creativity. They retained many of the blackened-death stylings, including blast beats and the like, mixing them with traditional metal influences. Overall, some pretty kickass stuff.

Good thread! I knew I recognized Conklin's voice and once you mentioned Titan Force (fellow Coloradoans) I knew that was where.

France's answer to Queensryche: Sortilège.







Some of the best metal nobody's ever heard of.

Proto-stoner-doom from down under, Buffalo's 1973 album Volcanic Rock.

"Freedom"


"Sunrise (Come My Way)"

Buffalo is pretty good, I like this record. I wouldn't call it "proto-stoner" because all the so-called stoner bands were really just riding a retro train paying an homage to this era.

Of course, you know how much I hate genre labels.

Once again, Sortilege is one of those bands I've always heard OF,but never actually HEARD. They sound pretty good. France is not exactly known as a metal hot bed but they had a couple of decent bands back in the day like FISC and Vulcain.

FISC was sorta Dokken-y...


Whilst Vulcain were kinda like Motorhead if they sang in French.

France had a pretty cool underground scene during the 80's; stuff like Blaspheme, High Power, Vulcain, ADX, Sortilège, Trust, etc.

If you can get past the language barrier, some of it rivals the best English-speaking metal of the era.

Yeah, I remember hearing about/reading about some of those bands in zines.... and of course Nicko McBrain was supposedly in Trust for a brief period...


How'zabout some Satan Jokers? I have no idea what the f*ck they're singing about but I love the riffs!!


Nowadays France is mainly known for bandwagon-jumping black metal

Humorously enough, Nicko's work with Trust is commonly regarded as some of their worst material.

And they aren't even one of the better groups of the scene, imo. Although they were one of the relatively more popular ones.

Satan Jokers is one of the bands I haven't checked out yet. Just based on the title, I'd say they're the french equivalent of Manowar.

That main riff is pretty damn tasty.

The only reason I even heard of Trust back in the day was the Nicko connection (and of course, cuz Anthrax covered their "Anti-Social")...

I also have vague memories of a French band called WARNING... used to see this album in stores all the time, never picked it up though, probably due to the aforementioned language barrier..

They need to put more rare metal on Spotify so I don't have to pay huge sums of cash for this stuff, or ...gasp... torrent it.

Quote :

Satan Jokers is one of the bands I haven't checked out yet.

I have an issue of Metal Maniacs around here somewhere from years back that has an interview with Chuck Schuldiner (Death) in it, and in one of the photos either he or one of his bandmates was wearing a Satan Jokers t-shirt. I was like "Damn, that's a name I haven't heard in a long time."

It's been said on Chuck's facebook tribute page, that he was really into the French metal scene during the 80's.

He even ripped the intro of Amazone as a tribute to Sortilege (his favorite band) in the song Evil Dead.

I checked out that Warning album on YouTube, they sound like the french version of Accept. The vocals are very Udo-ish, except this dude can carry a scream.

How about some Riot? One of the most underrated metal bands of all time, it's a shame they never really made it big (outside of Japan, that is).

Swords & Tequila [Live]


Wings of Fire


Buried Alive (Tell Tale Heart)


Medicine Man (The Tyrant Sessions version)


Magic Maker

Metal-On-Metal wrote:

Proto-stoner-doom from down under, Buffalo's 1973 album Volcanic Rock.

"Freedom"


"Sunrise (Come My Way)"

Great pick! I have a couple of Buffalo discs, Volcanic Rock is an awesome album.

Wino's great acoustic cover of Motorhead's "Iron Horse/Born To Lose"

That Wino track is pretty awesome.

The only stuff Wino related I've checked out was Saint Vitus, and surprisingly I couldn't get into it.

Metal-On-Metal wrote:

That Wino track is pretty awesome.

The only stuff Wino related I've checked out was Saint Vitus, and surprisingly I couldn't get into it.

Saint Vitus is very different because he doesn't play guitar on those albums, he just sings.

Start with Spirit Caravan, then check out The Hidden Hand, then The Obsessed. But honestly, almost every album he's recorded since the 90s is worth checking out.

I'm jamming that Spirit Caravan EP, Dreamwheel, on Spotify now. I'm enjoying this one substantially more than Saint Vitus.