I had the pleasure of playing two shows with Woods. My band opened for them in Regina and Saskatoon on two consecutive tour dates when our schedules crossed paths. They were awesome guys and great performers. The whole Winnipeg metal scene wore black armbands that christmas.

No way man. I definitely saw pics of you on Facebook then. I met Dave only briefly at this Toronto show, but his death deeply saddened me. He was such a talented, likable guy.

You should post some of your stuff :)

When i say played shows with, i mean we opened for them. I wasn't on stage with them, although that would have been awesome. A good friend of mine was supposed to tour with them as their drummer, but the tragedy occurred later that month.

As for Grand Master (my band) we just released our debut album, titled The Dream Alive, in April which you can sample at our myspace. (the myspace has better tracks than our facebook page, but feel free to check that out too.)

As for exclusives, this is a video from our CD release show. We covered Opeth's Bleak, with some friends. We're a three piece (the short haired guitarist, the drummer and the bassist/vocalist (me)) but we were joined on stage by our friend Ryan from Hoarfrost (death vocals) Mike from Soul Killing Female (Keyboards) and Mike from Endless Chaos (long haired guitarist). This is probably the most fun i've had on stage, and will certainly be hard to top.

YouTube Video

Is this progressive doom/death ? The synths almost have a King Crimson feel. Me likey !

Pretty slick sound for a gig too. You've got some talented guys in there. :o

We do our best not to be tied to a routine when writing songs, but we bill ourselves as a prog metal band and use that as our starting point. The first album is very much a grab bag of the random stuff we've been writing over the past few years. We're almost done writing the second album and it will have the same feel of variety, but there will be much more of a thrash/death influence. After that we're headed in yet a different direction but i'm not going to say too much now because we haven't really decided on anything yet.

I'm glad you like it.

So I just listened to the new Wintersun, and I can't believe I waited 8 years for this pretentious wankery ...

Yeah, the new Wintersun was a bit disappointing. I figured it would be though, considering how long it took and all.

also, hey guys D:

Whoah. I just listened to the new Wintersun, and I must say this is very different. It's more prog, I guess, with a pinch of celtic strings. It's not as hard hitting as the first one, more like mellowed shredding. I like the first track, reminds me of Time's Scar from Chrono Cross.

Time II is apparently supposed to have a lot more of the aggressive stuff.

:shrug:

Woot. That should be worth the wait.

Well, my last hope for 2012 went down. The new Finsterforst sucks too ... Well, "sucks" is kinda harsh, but it's by no means half as good as their latest before that. :(

Looks like the folk/viking scene is dying fast ... ;_;

Yeah :( It's really sad because I really enjoyed this sub-genre and I'm still listening to old stuff that got me hooked to folk/viking metal.

As long the Mithotyn / Bathory albums don't magically disappear I'll be fine :D

Gloryhammer, fantasy metal spinoff from Alestorm, finally released a song on youtube ... Sounds what like Luca Turilli was doing 10 years ago, minus the awesome, but it's not "bad" ...

GLORYHAMMER - Angus McFife | Napalm Records - YouTube

So I've been listening to Epicloud since roughly Christmas, and I have to say that this is exactly the album I need right now.

Boo told me about the new Stratovarius album, anyone listened to it yet?

It's not bad. It's certainly a lot heavier (darker i guess is a better word) than a regular fan might be used to. I thought it was a bit of a disappointment when compared to Elysium (i really liked that album) but it's not as bad as Polaris.

Considering Dreamspace is my favorite album of them by far, the new one might be going in a direction I can approve of :D

Well, the latest Finntroll album, Blodsvept, is pretty cool. It's more folky this time and a bit lighter compared to the dark and heavy last 2 albums (Ur Jordens Djup and Nifelvind). It's like a heavier version Nattfodd, but not as "funky".

Also, I still don't understand what they're singing about. I just like how it sounds. :)

The cover art is TERRIBAD but I actually liked the album a lot, yah :p

New Turisas is ... meh ... :/

New Satyricon is surprisingly good ! Best thing they did since Volcano imo. There's even a clean vocal song on it that's actually pretty awesome. Very catchy riffs and complex song structures through the whole album. I dunno, I really like it so far.

New Ensiferum out in Feb 2015, here's 2 songs from the new album.

I like it. It sounds a bit like their "Iron" album but with a mix of their new ones.

http://youtu.be/uv0CRm94ObE

new track:
http://youtu.be/I5H2YVtbXLM

We had a metal thread? WELL THEN

I'm a huge fan of early Ensiferum, but their latest albums haven't really blown me away, while still a good listen.
Not completely sold on "One Man Army" either, but "Heathen Horde" has some of their older feel to it, I rather like it.

Last year felt pretty dry with metal releases for me, so here's to hoping this year pays off.

Oh shiiiiiiiiiit gonna check this out after work.

If everyone hasn't checked out Barren Earth, please do so at the earliest.

Shameless Finnish metal promotion. Barren Earth vaguely resembles Amorphis, if that expedites getting you to listen to it.

YUP.

Like, current lineup? What are we talkin' here