heavyharmonies

I thought the first album was excellent.

Umm... no. All in all, I'll take Halestorm.

Been playing the heck out of this lately, and it's not losing any of its shine. The overall vibe/tenor of the album reminds me of H.E.A.T's Tearing Down the Walls (obviously specfic vocal and instrumental characteristics notwithstanding), whis a good thing. I don't mind 'Blood Enemies' as much as some here, although it seems like it would be more at home on a Ten or Dare album (intro-wise at least).

Ick.

Cheesy image, lyrics, subject matter, and video, but I dig the music. Origin as a "dorm band" is kinda cool. The dorm bands when I was in college absolutely SUCKED. Ty Christian - Fang Von Wrathenstein (vocals) Akira Shimada - Asian Metal (guitars) Elliot Ignasiak - Killius Maximus (guitars) Brent Clark - Pontifex Mortis (bass) Joe Scarpelli III - Dr. Dante Vitus (drums) LORDS OF THE TRIDENT started out as a recording project in the University of Wisconsin Madison dorm rooms around 2005. Roommates Ty Christian (Fang VonWrathenstein) & Akira Shimada (Asian Metal) teamed up with a mutual friend, Brian Cole (The Socrates of Shred), to create recordings to post on facebook. Originally, they had planned to keep the band a recording-only project, but in the summer of 2008, Ty's other band broke up and Ty, Brian, and Aki decided to play a few shows over the summer as the LORDS OF THE TRIDENT. Ty had the idea to make the show a spectacle, with costumes, stage names, and pyrotechnics. They found a drummer, Dan Metzker (Danalog) and bassist, Mike Charlton (Captain Bloodbeard), and set up a few shows around the area. Dan was fired from the band after a few shows, and was replaced with Corey Larson (Korgoth).

I don't dig polkas quite as much as I used to...

Better than I expected. I expect that metal traditionalists will find it "samey" to a lot of power metal out there, but there is a very melodic aspect to the choruses that I think will make it more enjoyable for melodic rock fans. Lineup: Roland Grapow (Masterplan, ex-Helloween) Thomen Stauch (ex-Blind Guardian) Mario Lochert (ex-Visions Of Atlantis) Dominik Sebastian (Edenbridge) Jan Vacik (ex-Dreamscape) and (last but not least) the golden voice of Urban Breed (ex-Tad Morose)

Decent, but not earth shattering. I will say though, that I like that they didn't go with an operatic style vocalist. I much prefer the pop/rock vocal style (Delain, Within Temptation, etc.) with metal over the overly dramatic operatic style that seems to be the rage.

I plan to roll it out over the weekend...

I can't even think about rating things yet, but I agree that Eclipse is a corker.

Am giving the full album a listen now, and... it's not as bad as one might have expected. One always wonders what the result will be whenever someone does a tribute album. Rob's vocal characteristics are... "unique" (for lack of a better word) and not exactly a match for Perry, but his vocal range makes it work. He pulls off all of the Perry high parts without sounding strained in the process (IMO that's usually the weakest point whenever anyone tries to sing Journey). I'm listening to digital promo files, so I hesitate to make qualitative assessments regarding production/mix, but in places it sounds muddy and thin, whereas in others it sounds fine. Certainly nothing innovative (tribute albums rarely are, by definition) but I'm not hearing anything that makes me wince. Song selection is decent, although I might have added "Lights" to the mix.

I probably should be more excited about this, but my reaction to the song is "meh".

The recording/mix is so bad you can't really tell how good or bad his voice really is. I will say though that getting Sam Kinison to front the band was a major coup... I thought he was dead. P.S. The crowd of 12 looks about as bored and uninterested as any I've ever seen.

Sounds absolutely awesome.

Yup, although his solo album Victory was a damned fine album. I still spin it on a regular basis.

Some I purchase, but many I get as digital promos (virtually no label does physical promo CDs any more).

I gotta say, that was a pretty fucking entertaining game. Patriots down by 10 in the 4th, then that insane catch by Seattle at the 5 yard line, and the improbable interception, and the scrum in the end zone. Wow. P.S. Abolutely HORRIBLE play call by Carroll from the 1-yard line when you have Lynch.

I despise both teams... I don't suppose there's any scenario whereby BOTH teams lose? This game is a pick 'em, IMO. Could go either way.

I don't care for live ALBUMS much either. I can think of only a handful that have any staying power for me. To me, a live performance needs a DVD, or now Blu-Ray treatment. It provides added context to all the background noise, acoustics, etc.

Was listening to the full album today. VERY good stuff! Question though: why did they choose a random '80s thrash metal band logo for the cover art?

Aww, HELL yeah! The last one was absolutely stuperb.

Harnell quits the band in T minus 4... 3... 2... 1... Seriously though, I liked the first two, so am looking forward to this one.

P.S. If you log in over on the main site, you can add your own top 5/10 lists to that page.

I just posted the Best of lists from Mike, Pete, Jez, Terry and myself. Strong year in many different genres... so much so that there was less consensus amongst us than ever before. Almost no overlap at all in our top 5 selections. http://heavyharmonies.com/cgi-bin/2014best.cgi Feel free to agree, disagree, or rip us to shreds for our takes. -Dan