Where did I say that?

Elitist self indulgent wanking...
Yeah that covers about 70% of metal fandom, that disses everything new as being "untrue" and "not as good as they were before".
Just read the user reviews for any random metal CD (that's from a better known band) on Amazon...
But, that's the FANS and not the bands...

On another note, mentioning of Ayreon in the thread got me to check them out, and now I'm probably having to dump some money on at least Human Equation and maybe also Into the Electric Castle.
Great stuff...
Plus a new album from them... Plus a new Coheed & Cambria album... Plus a new Thrice album... (yeah, elitistically speaking those aren't exactly totally metal)
This year is good... Expensive but good...

I got the new Iced Earth album. From the couple of songs I heard so far it's decent, nothing mind blowing. Better than Glorious Burden, however I did like that one, it was the weaker of all the IE albums and I definitely like Tim Owens on here more. He's doing a fine job.

I prefer that to the "wah wah stop being so narrow-minded and ELITIST, and be more OPEN-MINDED, meanie!" whining, personally. Not that either attitude is constructive, but it's the lesser of two evils. :D Elitistophobia makes no sense to me. Like there's anything wrong with not tolerating mediocrity.

Yeah. I need to get The Human Equation. Into the Electric Castle is badass, Star One as well.

True dat.
I just find it interesting, that the metal scene seems riddled with people who hate change (in a musical sense).
Or with people who are fans of some albums of a band rather then of the band in question itself.

Ayreon's albums are quite expensive to buy I've noticed. Might be due to them all having 2 cds... (Or it's that extra awesome in there that costs... :o )

I agree with the last sentence, at least. People hate elitism because they of course lash out when criticized, especially if we say, "your music sucks," so I understand "elitistophobia". It also happens that most "elitists" (or at least the most outspoken) are narrow-minded and condemn entire genres. The term has a stigma, so I prefer not to be identified as such. I wonder which type of elitist you are? =p

I have The Human Equation if you guys want me to upload it or something. I don't really like it (I prefer Into the Electric Castle), but it's kinda interesting anyway.

Also, I'm enjoying Atheist and Unexpect. Alarum's vocals are not doing it for me at all.

No upload for me.
Ayreon have convinced me of being awesome, and next time I buy a CD it's gonna some of their stuff. I doubt that I'll NOT love into the electric castle... and... the other things they / he did.

I understand; I typically like to download something before I buy it, but I have gotten a bit relaxed in the conversion, mostly because I'm poor.

Just saw Finntroll at BBKings tonight. There are two guitarists - a blonde and dark haired one, and I, apparently, am the clone of the dark haired one. I swear we must be related, because we're practically identical. The keyboards couldn't be heard as much as they should (as per the studio work), but besides that, they were pretty good. They played enough off of Nattfodd to make me happy. The new singer has pretty broken English, so that led to some confused hilarity.

I noticed something neat on the BBKing's flyer - Sonata Arctica is playing there on the 30th, and Unexpect is one of the three bands opening for them.

SONATA ARCTICA! Yes. I'm not much of a concert goer, but the last one I did go to was Blind Guardian's Twist in the Myth tour in Chicago. Amazing concert. I'd like to make it for Sonata Arctica again but I don't know if that works out with school. Don't think it does, unfortunately :(.

Taking a break from power, I recently got into a band called Decapitated. Anybody else heard of them? They've got some very catchy riffs, for being death metal, which I like but usually doesn't stick in my head like they do.

So Helloween's new album, Gambling With The Devil, rocks. I thought their last two offerings were kind of iffy, but this is like (pardon the expression) a return to their roots.

Also there are some growls.

Decapitated is pretty awesome. Which album did you get? Organic Hallucinations? I'm not too familiar with their new singer but it was quite jarring to me compared to their original which I felt was one of death metal's best. I really like Decpaitated's tight rhythm that almost has a militeristic feel to it, especially on the Negation.

Just found out I was going to see GWAR in a few weeks. Not sure who's opening yet, but that's kind of inconsequential considering.

I believe it's Cradle of Filth, CKY and Vains of Jenna who are with Gwar.

No, I wouldn't pay for that. I'm at the first leg of their next tour. They're headlining a smaller club tour.

I just uploaded the documentary The Decline Of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years about the metal scene in Los Angeles in the mid 1980's. It's a fairly solid mixture of interviews and performance footage, with some of the greats talking coherently about the genre and a bunch of then up and coming bands making complete dicks out of themselves.

It's here if you're interested:
http://67.55.54.146/knkwzrd/Document...al%20Years.avi

Yeah, Organic Hallucinosis. I haven't heard any of their older stuff though, I should probably check it out, didn't know they had a new singer for this one.

Started to listen to Arvinger again, and wondering if anyone dig them.

They're usually dissed because of their Viking Metal with Christian lyrics, but I think they're really awesome. Helgards Fall is a great album with a very rich atmosphere.

I picked up several new albums the other day and a new one today.

Atheretic - Adhesion, Adversion...

This is technical brutal death metal. It sounded alright from the little bit I heard. Nothing super special but nothing terrible either.

Amsvartner - The Trollish Mirror

Ridiculous album name but pretty decent black metal. This is the first I've heard of them and I enjoy it.

Disillusion - Gloria

I'm a fan of ...Back to Times of Splendor though this one was meh. Compared to their previous album it's definitely sub par but if it was to be on it's own, it's decent. Again not mind blowing and I'm glad I got it used and on the cheap.

Iron Maiden - Somewhere in Time and Piece of Mind

Self explanitory here. These albums are certainly fantastic and I have no idea why I never bought these until now! Oh well it's worth the wait and I'm glad to have them. Now to pick up the rest of Maiden's discography.

Trivium - The Crusade

Sure hated by many metalheads but I like them. This album is definitely closer to thrash metal than their previous effort and the James Hetfield clone doesn't hurt. I personally don't like this as much as Ascendancy but this album has some great anthems and headbangable tunes. Classic thrash...almost.

Piece of Mind is probably the second best Iron Maiden album, with tracks like "The Trooper" and "Flight of Icarus" on it. My personal fav is Powerslave (definitely pick this one up). "Aces High" and "2 Minutes to Midnight" are on Powerslave, which are both excellent, and all the other tracks are very solid as well. "Duelists" although more unknown is another I really like to listen to.

Beware with their discography though - from 94-99 their lead singer left, and the quality really suffers. I can't stand most of their stuff from those years. He comes back though, for Brave New World, another IM album I love :).

Powerslave is pretty much my favorite Iron Maiden album. I'll still check out the non-Dickinson era Maiden. I know it's shunned by many metalheads, perhaps I'll take to it.

Most excellent upload, knkwzrd! Geez, it's been ages since I've watched this the last time. Those were the days...

Zorro

I don't even really hate Bayley's voice - I mean it's not great, but it's not horrible - but it seemed that they were really suffering from weaker songwriting in general while he was in the band.

Their early stuff with Di'Anno is pretty awesome, though.

Posted in journal, but since it went completely unnoticed :

YouTube Video

:tpg:

For IM, I probably go:

1. Number of the Beast
2. Seventh Son
3. Powerslave
4. Piece of Mind
5. Brave New World
6. Fear of the Dark
7. Dying for the World
8. Matter of Life and Death
9. Dance of Death
10. Somewhere in Time
11-14. Insert Di'Anno/Bayley albums here.

I feel kind of weird putting Powerslave as high as I did, since I love nearly every track on Dying, Brave New World and Piece of Mind and only about half of PS, but nothing on those 3 compare to Aces High/2 Minutes to Midnight, which were my introduction to Maiden and I got a kick out of Flash of the Blade (which Falcom shamelessly ripped off for the track "Protectors", from Ys II). I thought the Blaze albums were just "blah" and I just didn't care for Di'Anno's singing all that much, though I probably should give him another try.

Any Judas Priest fans? I'm still in the process of tracking them all down (pre-British Steel and I think they had a 2005 one), but with what I have I probably go:

1. Painkiller
2. Turbo
3. Defenders of the Faith
4. British Steel
5. Screaming for Vengeance
6. Ram It Down
7. Point of Entry

Though those last three, I pretty much just picked the tracks I really liked (they did a great cover of Johnny B. Goode and of course, Electric Eye) and I just made a single listing. But the first four are all amazing, though I get the feeling I'm one of the few people who'd put Turbo that high...

JP didn't jump out at me the way Maiden did and I don't think they're as consistant, but their best tracks are easily on par, I think.

Edit: niki, great video...What was it?