Chisel Chin

Blimey, I see what you mean, and it's their most recent album. Just checked on Amazon UK and Ebay, it seems out of print and going for high prices. Similarly with Dominator, they don't seem to have new ones "In Stock". Smaller record label (Demolition Records)? Or less popularity and therefore a smaller print run?

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. Quite a few good suggestions which I've noted down to research further. A few comments off the top of my head... The Halestorm video was pretty good, although perhaps a bit too modern sounding for my tastes, but it had the raw energy. Doro Pesch (and Warlock), yes, I'd forgotten about them, obviously more metal than the hard-rock of Saraya, but I've watched a few videos on YouTube, and think I'll investigate further. And Nubian Rose, I saw their video for "You Will Never Walk Alone" the other day on the MelodicRock.com news page, and really liked it. Not really the style of this thread, but lovely colourful video and great song. I did look a bit further into them, but another video of theirs was more Metal and I didn't really like it (just because it didn't sound like this one, lol). When I get round to it, I'll check out samples of the whole album, in case this good song was just a one-off.

Lol. Is that the same "Eclipse" that got a 100% MelodicRock.com rating?

Survivor. Only bought their Jimi Jamison era albums a couple of years ago, and not being a band that I'd followed, didn't realise they originally had a different singer. After sampling those early albums, I didn't bother getting them as well. I've no idea how people rate Dave Bickler, but I'm assuming Jimi Jamison is more popular...

I guess the difference between 5/5 or 10/10 scoring systems, and the M.R. method of giving a % out of 100, is why we are obsessed with it. I usually accept 5 star ratings or 10/10 that you normally see everywhere, because it offers a rather limited scale to differentiate so easily, and can be treated a little more "casual". But having 100 points to play with presents a lot more opportunities for in-depth analysis and dropping points for the odd little fault here or there, so giving a perfect 100 could be taken less seriously and possibly even affect the credibility of the reviewing system as a whole. That's probably why it generates discussion, and I can think of loads of albums that are brilliant and I'd play for a long time to come, but still wouldn't get 100% perfection.

I think the only way he could be tougher is if he ups the maximum to 500%, then he might find it easier to knock off a percent.

99.9999999% of my music collection consists of bands with male vocalists. However, the exception is Saraya, whom I really love because (to me) she has a real rock voice with expression, and the band have that raw energy and harder edged sound that you normally get with male-fronted bands. Other female artists I'm familiar with (all from the same era) include Heart, Lita Ford, Vixen and Femme Fatale, but I've always found they offer a more "polished" Melodic Rock sound (including keyboards), which sounds great but still very slick and radio-friendly. Can you recommend anything to me (from any era) that really comes to life and rocks with raw energy like this: Saraya - Love Has Taken Its Toll

I've only given two albums in my collection a perfect 10/10 rating: Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime WASP - The Crimson Idol I've given a few 9.5 ratings (I only rate in 0.5 increments) to albums by Marillion, Dream Theater, U2, Arena and Def Leppard, but there's always something that stops them being perfect. But it's all down to music preferences... I'm not mad about Melodic Rock, so a great album in that genre would probably get no more than 8.5, as they don't have the same impact on me. A typical album of (say) ten songs, all with catchy tunes and structured the same (intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, solo, chorus, fade-out) is something that entertains me, but at the end of the day it's like "bubblegum rock", chew it for a while and then spit it out until the next time. For me, an album usually has to have a lot more depth and creativity to really elevate it to a much higher score.

Degreed's "Dead But Not Forgotten" has just been given 100%... obviously just personal opinion, as a song I just sampled on YouTube didn't really do anything for me. I admire Andrew's boundless enthusiasm, he reminds me of the "brilliant kid" sketches from The Fast Show. ... (there's plenty more on YouTube)

Another one I've just thought of is Spock's Beard. I'm a big Neal Morse fan (love his voice, and could listen to his solo albums all day long), and I didn't like the samples I heard of their first album following his departure, so haven't followed them since. However, I have noticed that they still get good reviews, so wasn't sure to include them in this thread as I'm not familiar with what they do nowadays.

From some of those mentioned: I stopped buying Gotthard albums after Steve Lee's death, although from what I've heard, they picked a replacement who could carry on in a relatively similar style. And having never been a Journey fan, who I thought were a bit too wet and wasn't keen on that "poppy" AOR sound, I did buy Revelation when it came out (the 2-CD set with the disc of re-recorded older songs), and really enjoyed it, so don't have a problem with them carrying on with the new guy. Plus, I got interested in their story of how they found him, and watched the Youtube videos of the news story and his old covers band, so I kind of warmed to the idea that way.

Hi there, Been here about a week now after seeing this site being mentioned on the Sleaze Roxx forum where I've been reading (and occasionally posting) for a few years. Spent a few days reading through a fair amount of threads on this site going back as far as they'll go, and it looks like there's been lots of interesting discussions. I've even discovered a couple of new bands from here already, and ordered some CDs: Crazy Lixx ("New Religion") and JettBlack (first two albums). Been a rocker for around 25 years, love the hard rock 80s, the traditional metal bands, and prog rock / prog metal. Got a bit of catching up to do to see what decent bands I've missed out on, as I've mainly focused on the Prog genre for the last few years. Also been trying to seek out more classic rock bands (60s / 70s style), either from those decades, or modern ones doing the retro sound. I could have done with there being a dedicated Classic Rock section on this forum, but never mind, I'll carry on with my quest via Google. I've already started a few discussion threads on here, and got some positive feedback, so thought I'd properly say Hello.

Testament was a band I'd only followed up until around 1992/93 (the last album I bought was "The Ritual"). However, it was only a few years ago that I found out that Chuck Billy had auditioned for Sepultura to replace the departed Max Cavalera. I wonder what his bandmates thought of it at the time, thinking they were in one of the major thrash bands with a singer who was quite prepared to abandon them for a (then) higher-profile band.

Oh, bollocks to the truncated thread title! Looks like a bug in the forum software, since it lets me type much more into the text box.

What bands do you think made a BIG mistake replacing their singer after a long established career? Maybe you didn't like the new voice, or maybe it brought about a change in musical direction that you didn't like and they should have changed their name as well (but didn't). I'm guessing it's going to be quite easy to rattle off some names in this thread, but it would be good if you can provide some reasoning to justify your choices. Great White -- Jack Russell was the sound of Great White to me, and the new version just doesn't sound like the same band any more. Bonfire -- again, too long and established with Claus Lessmann, so pointless with David Reece. Skid Row -- couldn't see the point without Seb Bach, should have changed their name, considering they changed their style to more melodic rock. Iron Maiden -- Blaze Bayley was totally unsuited to the band, even though I do actually quite like his albums, mainly because the tunes were still good and they still sounded like Maiden. Judas Priest -- in contrast to Iron Maiden, I wasn't too bothered with Ripper Owens replacing Halford, he's got a good voice and brought a more "macho" style to the band, and I often give the "98 Live Meltdown" album a spin. However, I really didn't like the two albums they made with him.

What about "revolving door" changes in singers as well? Yngwie Malmsteen -- Every singer except Malmsteen himself, lol Arena -- I'm quite indifferent to the various singers they've had. I've read that they get some vocal coaching so they fit nicely into the band's established prog "rock opera" sound, so never really had a problem with the revolving doors here.

Lol, yes indeed. It was reading that thread earlier today that made me start this one... I was actually going to make this into a "like" AND "dislike" thread, but decided just to stick with positive vibes.

Write some comments about bands you like who switched vocalists after having already established themselves over a number of years, and you liked them even better than before. You can pick any time in their history, so you don't necessarily have to think in relation to their most recent singer. Marillion -- loved them with Fish, but couldn't believe I'd end up liking them even better with Steve Hogarth. Van Halen -- getting Hagar to replace Roth was a real masterstroke, one of the real voices of rock. Black Sabbath -- not very keen on Ozzy (but still like the early albums), however I loved their work with Dio and also Tony Martin (who I have continued to follow in other projects). Savatage -- Jon Oliva was good, but I thought Zachary Stevens was a much better singer and much prefer his albums with them. Axel Rudi Pell -- Jeff Scott Soto was great, but I like Johnny Gioeli even better. Metal Church -- loved the three albums they made with Mike Howe, looking forward to hearing the new one. Threshold -- after some revolving doors with singers, loved the stability and consistency Mac brought to the band... shame they went back to Damian Wilson, not very keen on his voice.

Cool. It's been a while, that will make it 6 years after Babylon was released.

I'm not really that familiar with much of today's Power Metal, there's so many of them around that it's too much to follow, particularly when they start sounding a bit samey (neo-classical widdly-widdly). So the only ones I've got are bands that I got into years ago, such as Savatage, Vicious Rumors, Symphony X, Kamelot, Circle II Circle, Tad Morose, DGM, Nocturnal Rites, Thunderstone, Rhapsody Of Fire. However, looking at my collection, the following qualify as Screamers: -- Daniel Heiman (Lost Horizon) -- Dirk Thurisch (Angel Dust) -- Michele Luppi (Vision Divine, Killing Touch) But they're still from quite a while back... Am I missing out on any more up-to-date stuff?

For any artists/bands you used to listen to at the time they were around (rather than getting into them retrospectively), can you recall finding out something significant about them many years after an event actually happened, i.e. you weren't aware of it at the time for whatever reason? For example, I just went to Wikipedia to check the spelling of Steelheart singer Miljenko Matijevic for another thread I've just created, and I never knew that the band ended in 1992 after Matijevic suffered an accident falling from a stage rig and was seriously injured when a piece of equipment fell on him. I had their debut album on cassette when it first came out, and then subsequently got the CD... a fantastic album. It was only several years ago that I picked up their second album which I had never previously owned. Obviously this was long after they had split, but I had no idea until today that the band ended because of that accident, rather than the usual reason of going their separate ways, etc. I had just assumed they were another casualty of the Grunge era taking over.

Having grown up in the era of 80's rock bands, I love the high-pitched singers like Mark Slaughter, Miljenko Matijevic (Steelheart), Midnight (Crimson Glory). Is there anything in this style in today's Rock/Metal, or is it deemed a bit old-fashioned nowadays? I realise there's quite a few more recent singers in the higher register, usually prog metal acts such James LaBrie (Dream Theater), Vanden Plas or Sylvan, but I don't really consider them screamers, and they don't really seem to reach the really high notes like the aforementioned ones did.

Usually you get bands who stick to a particular style or tried and tested formula, such as AC/DC, Iron Maiden, Black Crowes... they are dependable and you know what you're going to get from them. But then you get those who have tried different styles over their career, some more (or less) successful than others, for example: Kiss Glam Rock, Heavy Rock, a few Disco songs, that Music From The Elder abomination, their attempt to fit in with the Grunge crowd with Carnival Of Souls, then back to their well-known hard rock style. Metallica First album thrasy, then slightly less thrashy and more heavy metal, then more mainstream metal with the Black album and Load/Reload, the S&M orchestral crossover, then St. Anger with that new drumming sound, back to a heavy thrashy album, and then Lou Reed(!!) Alternatively, you could have gradual evolutionary changes over time, such as Anathema who went from death metal to lighter prog rock, or more abrupt changes in direction like Dare who started with AOR then harder rock before settling on their mellow Celtic sound. Which artists/bands do you like who have offered up different styles over the years, and what are your opinions of what they did?

A few that I haven't seen mentioned: The Answer - Rise Buckcherry Quireboys - A Bit Of What You Fancy I'd disagree with previous mentions of Black Crowes and Thunder, both of whom I think their second albums are better as they stretch out more in both instances.

Iron Maiden - "Virtual XI" I much prefer this to The X-Factor (which always feels too long), it's got some great tunes, shame it's Blaze instead of Bruce, but I enjoy it for what it is. W.A.S.P. - "K.F.D." I love the dark, intense evilness of this one, such a unique album in their catalogue. EDIT: If they meet the criteria of this thread, I'll also add Megadeth's "Risk" and Metallica's "St. Anger" (I really liked that new drum sound, just because it was different).