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Good news! As for the Acoustic EP, have it and thought it was much better than I was expecting it to be. In the end, nice collectible but not something I'll be spinning often

Got the physical EP and have to give them a couple props. I traditionally dislike EP's and not really a fan of buying them as the ones I've bought in the past are usually in cardboard sleeves and cheaply done. This one though came packaged nicely in a jewel case with lyrics in the booklet. Nice touch. That said, I still don't like the idea of EP's and that I had to pay a full CD price to get it. Basically just get half the music for the same cost. But at least it was well put together

Gave this a listen last night and admit is was sort of a half-hearted listen while doing other stuff.....But above kinda summed up my initial feeling... Sounds decent but songs just didn't overly grab me for whatever reason and not really feeling a big urge to re-listen. Kinda reminds me in a way how I felt about that Brink album last year when I listened to that. That was decent enough too but just didn't engage me. I'll probably give this another spin or two just to see what happens though.

Dig that. I really never got into these guys much back in the day outside a few songs here and there but for me their last album was excellent stuff. This seems to be picking right up where the last one left off.

I'm generally not a huge "metal" guy but that isn't too bad at all and kinda digging it. Reminds me a bit of 80's era Judas Priest. Will be keeping eyes on this.

Guess I'll be the oddball but for me it's the opposite. I think I've liked each release a little bit more than the last. But for me they'd probably all be literally all be within about 5 points of each other if I were rating them and enjoy them all.

Nice. Blind preorder done! I'd guess we probably won't see this album until the summer at the earliest but good news.

Anybody check out the Vibration I EP released today? Probably could start a thread for it but I'm not sure EP's deserve their own thread Anyhow, for me it's pretty good. We'd already heard 3 songs so only 2 "new" songs on it. I think Do You, Keep Me Alive and Revolution are all pretty good and are probably the "keepers" for me here. You Will Remain is okay but not really doing a lot for me. And the last song To The Moon and Back is a cover and I rarely get excited about covers. I guess the good thing here is I had never heard of the original song so it basically feels like an original to me and it's decent enough. Overall, seems like it's a fairly "light" EP and doesn't have much edge to it like say songs like The Crown, Harder To Breathe, etc. Still decent stuff that's melodic and catchy though. I think mostly I just have a real hard time getting excited about EP's in general and there is nowhere near the same buzz as there is when it's a full album. I kinda question the decision to release an EP and to switch away from Frontiers when they seemed to really increase their buzz with the last album. Think they are planning a second EP later this year...Hopefully both are combined into a single CD down the road.

This should be good....One of my most anticipated releases this year.

Not to bad...might check this out. My only little worry are the modern Bon Jovi and countryish vibes in spots. Both these tunes are pretty good though so will be worth checking out.

Agree...But I think I basically love everything about it Bands often seem to try to go backwards a bit to their "meat and potatoes" sound and many times aren't really that successful. I have to say from the 3 songs so far and the samples of the other songs that it sure sounds like these guys have nailed it. Great move by these guys to stop pushing forward with a bit more modernized/commercial sound that they experimented with on the last album and taking a step back to what they do best.

My thoughts exactly!

Yep. .more great stuff!

I'd probably say Motley Crue back in 2014 for this. Vince was terrible and it really mostly just felt like they were going through the motions. I think partly why it felt so bad to me was because I've seen this band a handful of times before that show including a few times in the 80's and they always really killed it. I have great memories of Tommy doing crazy solos, great energy from all the guys and hot girls on stage And the 2014 show was just very forgettable with my only real memory being of Vince constantly holding the mic to the crowd for them to sing for him lol.

Agree with Glenn in that a couple standout singles in 2019 are from 2020 releases as H.e.a.t in particular released two great songs that would be in my top songs of 2019. I always have a tough time listing my favorite songs and ranking them is even tougher. I'd say my ten favorites in no particular order (from albums released in 2019) might be: Pretty Maids - Will You Still Kiss Me/Firesoul Fly/Undress Your Madness Degreed - Summer of Love Crazy Lixx - Silent Thunder/It's You Defiants - Hollywood In Headlights/Fallin' For You/Standing On The Edge Roxy Blue - Collide

Agree. I really feel like this band shake down two ways....Pre and Post Mutt. And I'm sure Steve Clark played a big role too. There's no denying though that they lost something in terms of creating music after the early 90's. They've still had some good tunes from Slang and forward but they're a little bit all over the place. These guys were far and away my favorite band in my youth though and I'd probably still list them as my favorite band even though H.e.a.t is probably making my favorite music right now. As for my top 10 songs, not sure on the order but the ones popping in my head are: Animal Photograph Let It Go Rock Of Ages Bringin On The Hearbreak Hysteria Pour Some Sugar On Me Armageddon It Stagefright Women No surprise that all 10 are from HND, Pyromania and Hysteria.

Interesting question.... I'd say for me that my band of the decade is H.e.a.t. They've just been on another level for me and they really were responsible for heightening my interest in the European bands. I'm not sure what my top 10 albums are but H.e.a.t would probably have the top 2 with Tearing Down the Walls and Address The Nation. The rest of my top 10 would be some combination of albums from Crazy Lixx, Midnite City, Pretty Maids, Eclipse and the Defiants. These bands have all basically had my top 1 or 2 albums yearly over the past 8-10 years so they'd surely make up my top 10 of the decade.

So what do you guys have for your top albums of 2019? Top 5, 10 or whatever For me the year got off to a real slow start for my tastes. It picked up in the last few months of the year though. 1) Pretty Maids - Undress Your Madness: I was late to the party on these guys so maybe there stuff still sounds fresher to me for that reason. But for me this one sounds fantastic and is very melodic. I'd say Will You Still Kiss Me (If I See You In Heaven) might be my favorite song this year. 2) Crazy Lixx - Forever Wild: This was my #1 for most of the year. Awesome album, catchy and melodic as heck. Really dig what these guys have done on their past couple albums. 3) Defiants - Zokusho: Excellent follow up to their debut album that was my #1 album in 2015. Love the first 5 tracks but loses just a little steam for me in the second half in a couple spots, especially with the last song Drink Up which for me is the worst song they've recorded. Still excellent overall though. 4) Crashdiet - Rust: Never been huge into these guys but I dig this album. Maybe I just clicked with the new singer. Fav tunes probably Idiots, Into the Maze and Parasite. 5) Eclipse - Paradigm: For me this album is clearly behind the past few albums this band has put out but I still like it for what it is. I do wish they'd expand their horizons a bit more. 6) Degreed - Lost Generation: Solid album top to bottom except for the Blue Virgin Isles cover tune. Think I like this one a little better than their last album (which was still good). 7) Station - Stained Glass: Have been a big fan of these guys and they do some good stuff. But they need to tone down the ballads as it's killing the tempo of this and their last album. 8) Tesla - Shock: Another I know many disliked and agree there are a few head scratchers here. There's a handful of tunes I like though and like how melodic it is. And for me Tesla had gotten pretty stale on their last couple albums so I welcomed something a little different. 9) Roxy Blue - S/T: Yeah, I know this is probably the one that isn't like the others and know many didn't like it. For some reason I did though. Probably mostly because when it came out I was hungry for something new to listen to and I loved their debut and really wanted to like this. It's pretty modern sounding but still rocks in a different way. Favorite tune on it is probably Collide. 10) Nitrate - Open Wide: Pretty good album and probably like it better than the debut. For some reason though it just didn't stick with me very much or get much replay this year. Will be interested to see others lists to maybe dig a little deeper at stuff I missed or didn't give enough of a chance.

Feel the same. If this were a brand new band and a debut album, we'd probably be salivating. I do get it....I wish they'd push their boundaries a bit more. I think Erik has the kind of voice that always sorta sounds the same so they really need to get creative with song structures, riffs, hooks, harmonies, etc in order to change things up. Still pretty good and I have it slotted in my #4 spot in this fairly down year for my tastes.

Sorry...But not doing anything for me. Just not my tastes I guess.

Yeah...Personal preference is obviously at play.....Obviously not talking about the headliners like Tesla, Ratt, NR. But for me (And I know I'm probably in the minority) I'd take H.e.a.t, CL and Eclipse over jsut about everybody else on that ballot. I mean, the way I look at it is....If H.e.a.t and Heaven's Edge were playing in the same building and you could only go to one show, which would you go to? I'd be going to H.e.a.t and it's not even close. I'd answer that question the same for most bands on this bill. And if I go to my CD shelf, I pull out H.e.a.t or Crazy Lixx to listen to WAY more than I'm pulling out Dangerous Toys, Slaughter, Kix, Tyketto, etc. And with bands like Accept, Doro, Bang Tango, Little Caesar, Faster Pussycat, Y&T, Steelheart, Killer Dwarfs...I can't even pull a CD off the shelf because I never liked them enough to buy one Like you said though, it's really all personal preference and what you like.

I couldn't even tell you who Greta Van Fleet is. Maybe like the Struts? I hear them tossed around as being current rock and checked them out awhile back....They are NOTHING like H.e.a.t, Crazy Lixx, etc.

Might be true. People can't like what they don't know about though. I'd bet that if you put H.e.a.t or Crazy Lixx in front of those fans that there would be many walking away impressed with them. There's just no way you can't if you're a fan of this genre and style of music. It's just a shame. H.e.a.t and Crazy Lixx are putting out better new music than any band on that bill and it's not even close. Heck, I'd go so far as to say the music they're putting out is probably way better than most of these bands ever even did in their primes. I almost feel bad for people that have no idea what they're missing.

Okay lineup but I won't be making the 5 hour drive to it. Not to mention I'm already seeing most of these bands on the Monster Of Rock Cruise. I think the only real interesting band I haven't seen or won't be seeing on the cruise is Dangerous Toys. I still wish this festival would consider adding in 2-3 newer type acts like Crazy Lixx, H.e.a.t, Eclipse, etc, etc. It just gets old seeing 90% of the bands on this bill being the same bands every year. Eventually this festival is going to die as there won't be any bands to play it. I think these newer bands would go over well if put in front of that audience when they see these bands are blowing those old bands away. I like what the MORC is doing by working in some newer bands, Europeans bands, etc. They've got a nice mix of new and old on the next cruise and can't wait to be there.

90 second samples of all songs up on I Tunes. Specifically I found on I Tunes Sweden. All I can say is Wow. Definitely some combination of their first 4 albums all mashed together to my ears. I'm not hearing much at all here, if anything at all that reminds me of Into The Great Unknown. I'd probably say Address The Nation is the best starting point for a comparison if I had to pick. Mostly just some kick ass AOR melodic hard rock if that makes any sense lol. Either way, definitely digging what I'm hearing.