New Angra Song! - Arising Thunder (2010) from the upcoming album "Aqua"

Genre: Power Progressive Metal
Quality: 320 kbps MP3
About: I'd have to say at first listen this new song from my favorite band, their first song in 4 years, is just good overall. Verses are a little boring, chorus is amazing and the manditory power metal speed solos are great as usual but nothing too special there. Well try it and see for yourself, here's a link direct from their site to download the new song. Watch for the new album "Aqua" on October 5! Rest assured it will be on this blog on or before release date.

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Please support the musicians that spent so much time, effort, and money to make this great music for you - Buy their albums and go to their concerts (if possible)!
Pre-order new album at Amazon
Pre-order new album at iTunes (Doesn't work in US??)

Lantlôs - .neon (2010) (320kbps MP3)

Genre: Atmospheric/Depressive/Suicidal Blackened Shoegaze
Quality: 320kbps MP3
About: Yesterday I discovered this came out, and since I had listened to their album and demos before and liked them, I thought ok I should get it. But if someone had ran my face over with a steamroller I would not have been more surprised. This is a band who has matured so much over the past 5 years, from an almost blast-beat-fest on every song, to... this. Every song brings this wave of emotions, varying from anger to introspective to sad. The musical content varies along with it, there are moments of the fast aggressive black metal everyone loves, then there's passages with progressive-sounding beats and also minimalist parts. I don't know what more to say except it must be heard to be believed. New song of the year: "These Nights Were Ours."

Recommended A must-listen for all fans of the genre, in fact the multi-instrumentalist creator of Alcest is the permanent singer for this band now, and the artwork was done by a member of Les Discrets.

Neige - Vocals (Alcest, Peste Noire, Mortifera (Fra), Phest, Amesoeurs)
Herbst - Guitar, Bass, Drums, Lyrics (Epitaph, Herbst, Impavida, Líam)

Cover artwork by Fursy Teyssier (Les Discrets).

1. Minusmensch 07:49 2. These Nights Were Ours 04:41 3. Pulse / Surreal 08:21 4. Neige de Mars 05:01 5. Coma 06:07 6. Neon 07:42 Total playing time 39:41

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Please support the musicians that spent so much time, effort, and money to make this great music for you - Buy their albums and go to their concerts (if possible)!

Rhapsody Of Fire - The Frozen Tears Of Angels (2010) (with Digipak bonus tracks)

Genre: Epic Symphonic Power Metal
Quality: .m4a (AAC) @ 256kbps
About: While I could argue that their songs sound rehashed from old riffs on old albums, and some of the song structures seem tired...

And, I wish they had utilized the Narration more as they did in previous albums. Their albums are each supposed to tell a story - for example the last one was about a band of heros questing to find some ancient book in a cave on a mountain, then when they get it they find out its cursed and try to run out with it. More or less. - but this album just seems like a bunch of songs with similar themes...

However, this is still a great album from the Epic Power Metal kings. However, it's the non-power metal songs that really shine through for me. "Crystal Moonlight," "Danza Di Fuoco E Ghiaccio" (Dance of Fire and Ice), "Lost In Cold Dreams," "The Frozen Tears Of Angels." They all have a very fresh feeling and I've never heard anything like them from Rhapsody, or any band for that matter.

Solid 9.0 from me.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is the third chapter of "The Dark Secret Saga", which began with "Symphony
Of Enchanted Lands II: The Dark Secret".

Track List:

1.	Dark Frozen World	02:13
2.	Sea of Fate	04:47
3.	Crystal Moonlight	04:25
4.	Reign of Terror	06:52
5.	Danza Di Fuoco E Ghiaccio	06:25
6.	Raging Starfire	04:56
7.	Lost in Cold Dreams	05:12
8.	On the Way to Ainor	06:58
9.	The Frozen Tears of Angels	11:15
Total playing time		53:03

The special limited deluxe digipak has two bonus tracks: (Included here)
10. Labyrinth of Madness (04:35)
11. Sea of Fate (Orchestral Version) (04:04)


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Please support the musicians that spent so much time, effort, and money to make this great music for you - Buy their albums and go to their concerts (if possible)!
Buy from Nuclear Blast Records (Unfortunately Europe-only... if you don't want to pay insane import costs you have to wait until June 29th... That is what I am doing because I am too poor to pay 30 dollars for one album.)

Vougan - Mind Eceeding (2007) with bonus track

Genre: Heavy Power Progressive Metal
About: I cannot believe how unknown this band, and especially this singer, Carlos Zema is. He is just about my favorite singer, because he can combine the agression of growling vocals with the melodies of clean vocals. This album proves that perfectly so check this out, and also "Virus from Hell" which he does guest vocals on. The other musicians are equally amazing, with lots of surprises, most of which being in "L.O.S.T."

I included a bonus song that was on their myspace for a while, and according to their official site, they just finished their [extremely limited, grrr] US tour and are working on a second album now!

Vougan metal archives

Virus From Hell metal archives

Download pt 1
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Soul Takers - Flies in a Jar (2007)

Click here for Cover art- NSFW lol



Genre: Female-Fronted, Melodic Metal, Melodic Rock, Progressive Metal
About: Aka (incorrectly) as Soultakers. This is a really great album and unique vocalist.

"The thrilling and dramatic atmospheres of their first release, where decadent Classical music and heavy metal blended in a thoroughly personal style, are confirmed and developed in this album. 'Flies in a Jar' will drive you into a total experience, alternating evocative and tormenting melodies and Heavy Metal ride intriguing refrains and refined arrangements. " -CD universe

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Virus from Hell - Threat (2008) (featuring Carlos Zema of Heaven's Guardian, Vougan...)

Genre: Heavy Metal, Power Metal, Progressive Metal, Thrash Metal
About: It's heavy power metal, similar to everything else Carlos Zema has been in (Heaven's Guardian, Vougan, Coldera, Outworld). He's a guest vocalist on track 4. But the vocalist on the other two tracks deserves recognition as well. This music is perfectly suited to his amazing voice. The composer, Murilo Rassi, really deserves some recognition, and is looking for a label and managerial support, etc. He plays bass guitar for this album and for Heaven's Guardian in the past.

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Alternatively, download free from last.fm

metal archives

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Adramelch - Irae Melanox (1988) (CORRECT TAGS AND TRACK ORDER)

Genre: Power Metal, Progressive Metal, Heavy Metal
About: Another great classic Italian metal album! Nice raw, but clear sound. According to where I got this, it is remastered, but I can't verify.

If you have a last.fm account, join this group to be informed of a new classic italian metal album each month!: http://www.last.fm/group/Old+School+Italian+Metal

Full review here (scroll down for english): http://www.last.fm/group/Old+School+Italian+Metal/forum/103498/_/496813

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Alkemyst - Meeting in the Mist (2003)

Genre: power metal, progressive metal, melodic metal, speed metal
About: The first album from this great french band. My favorite is "Hold On To Your Dreams" followed closely by the powerful "Up to Heaven's Gate" and the soaring ballad "A Meeting in the Mist". Longer reviews here!

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Alkemyst - Through Painful Lanes (2008)

Genre: power metal, progressive metal, melodic metal, speed metal
About: This band is probably the only worthwhile thing to ever come out of France. Definitely one of the top albums of these genres from 2008, and massively underrated! Plus a fantastic cover of "Eagle Fly Free" by Helloween. My favorite song is "When the Morning Comes."

Read a full review from a non-lazy person here! (or just skip it and download)


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Imperium - Too Short a Season (1993) (Imperium (Hol) - Too Short a Season)

Genre: Power Metal, Progressive Metal, Thrash Metal
About: The only album from this group from Holland, but it's great. Stolen from metal-archives:

"I tend to like prog/power bands that favor heavy thrash-influenced riffing over their lighter counterparts, so this relatively unknown Imperium album hits the spot. I'm not an expert on the history of the genre, but it's probably one of the first albums of its kind, marrying chunky riffs with progressive song structures and a singer fairly typical, these days, of the style on display.

Too Short a Season is a little raw, a little unpolished, but it succeeds in more ways than it fails. Sounding at times like Razor's mid-paced Shotgun Justice era material (just listen to the riff in the second track around 1:12), and then switching over to the kind of prog metal Queensryche and Fates Warning fans would be proud of, Imperium should please prog rockers -- and people not entirely satisfied with metal you can't bang your head to -- alike. It's not so different from the first Psychotic Waltz album, except it's not as good. Imperium's frontman André Vuurboom pales in comparison to Buddy Lackey and other more memorable metal singers; his tone is grating and he's probably the biggest obstacle staying this album from being a true 'lost gem,' despite possessing a decent falsetto. It's otherwise very good, with a wide variety of riffs not limited to the stylings of thrash, impressive audible bass playing, and a drummer who understands timing and has a good sense of when to busy it up with fills and when to be a simple rhythm-keeper.

I should probably reiterate the thrash influence, because I'm listening to song number 6, "Chemical Dreams," and it could easily pass as something released in 1986 alongside Slayer's Reign in Blood. These Dutchmen wrote better thrash riffs than quite a few thrash bands, in fact, though they did have the gift of hindsight given this album's 1993 release date."


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Almah - Fragile Equality (Retail!) (Edu Falaschi of Angra)

Genre: See tags on bottom, in parentheses.
About: I'm only on track 4 but based on what I hear it's quite a bit heavier than any of the Angra releases, which is a nice change. However there are still the slower ballad songs. This album as a whole seems very immersive and atmospheric. For fans of any type of Metal!

Year: See year tag on bottom.
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Landguard - Eden Of A Parallel Dimension

Genre: Power Metal, elements of: Progressive Metal, Heavy Metal
About: Absolutely fantastic and unique album. At first the song-interlude-song format seems stupid but it works. If you are a fan of power metal you will be blown away by every song. I listened to it twice in a row because it was so good. They are supposedly still together but have not released a second album yet, only two more demos in 2002 and 2003.

Year: 2001
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Dream Theater - Systematic Chaos

Genre: Progressive Metal
About: Fantastic Progressive Metal album, as all of theirs are. I'm going to see them live tomorrow. :)

Year: 2007
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Royal Hunt - Paradox II: Collision Course

Genre: Progressive Metal, Power Metal, elements of: Melodic Metal, Heavy Metal
About: Their first album with vocalist Mark Boals of Yngwie Malmsteen. He returns to some of the best vocals since he left YM in 2000. He has probably the best clean high screams I've heard. The band is from Denmark, though Mark Boals isnt.

Year: 2008
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Opeth - Watershed

Genre: Progressive Metal, Death Metal, elements of: All other types of metal
About: Honestly, If you haven't heard of Opeth, I don't even know how you're here. But if you have, you should expect this album to be epic, and it is. (They are touring this summer! :D)

Year: 2008
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Vision Divine - Stream of Consciousness (Demos, with Fabio Lione)

Genre: Power Metal, elements of Progressive Metal
About: The last tracks recorded in this band with Fabio Lione of Rhapsody / Rhapsody of Fire singing. He quit the band before the actual album was recorded.

Year: 2004
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Týr - Land ( Tyr - Land )

Genre: Progressive Metal, Viking Metal, Folk Metal
About: I just saw them live last night, great show. Very unique band, give it a try if you're in for something new.
"Týr is a Viking Metal band from Faroe Islands. Its music can be described as a blend of viking, folk, and even hints of progressive metal. The band incorporates many folk elements and melodies in their songs, but the thing that makes Týr stand out is the musical inclusion of the island’s native folk structure. Týr’s songs include many rhythm changes and complex time signatures."

Retail album, not the promo with someone saying "You are listening to..." every few minutes!

Year: 2008
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Download Pt 2

Pelican - After The Ceiling Cracked

Genre: Progressive Metal, Instrumental, Sludge, Post-Rock, Live
About: This is one of those bands that doesn't fit into just one category. Very original, very unique, and I just bought tickets to see them in 3 weeks so I thought I'd post this live album from 2008. It's a DVD but someone ripped the audio I guess. Note: Recording is quiet. Easily fixed by right clicking the song in itunes, get info, options, volume adjustment.

Year: 2008
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Mehida - Blood & Water

Genre: Progressive Metal, Power Metal, Heavy Metal
About: Great prog/power from Finland. Everyone's from Finland...

Album: Blood & Water
Year: 2007
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Dyecrest - This Is My World

Genre: Power Metal, Heavy Metal, elements of Progressive Metal
About: From Finland and I bet you haven't heard of them! Nice vocalist too. Honestly, it seems like every band comes from Finland. I guess they have nothing better to do than play awesome metal.

Album: This is My World
Year: 2005
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