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Posted: **Sat Sep 20, 2008 5:26 am**

MercyfulUngol wrote:I'm really anticipating the Hell (UK) reunio

Oh, you won't be after reading the thread on this topic that's a few pages back...

Posted: **Sat Sep 20, 2008 5:32 am**

sovdat wrote:I guess the Anthrax tour 2005 with 80s line up was the best thing when it comes to reunions...

I saw them twice that year.

The first time in Gigantour with Megadeth and the second time opening for Judas Priest.

Both times they put on a great show and played songs such as "Medusa" that I never thought I would hear.

It was awesome.

Posted: **Sat Sep 20, 2008 6:35 am**

The new Paradox seems fine to me.

Posted: **Sat Sep 20, 2008 7:57 am**

Some reunions have been good, Manilla Road for example. The steady albums Atlantis Rising and Spiral Castle finally led to the godly Gates of Fire.

Candlemass have done great with two more than stellar albums and killer live shows.

I'll be damned though, if there is anything to match Pagan Altar and the two masterpieces they have put out, Lords of Hypocrisy and Mythical & Magical.

Posted: **Sat Sep 20, 2008 8:53 am**

Helm wrote:The new Paradox seems fine to me.

I like both "Electrify" and "Collision Course"...Not as good as the first two albums, but better than most of shit coming out from reunited bands.

Not outstanding, but strong comebacks also from Sacred Oath, Steel Assassin and Axehammer, all on Sentinel Steel.

Posted: **Sat Sep 20, 2008 9:27 am**

Avenger wrote:
sovdat wrote:I guess the Anthrax tour 2005 with 80s line up was the best thing when it comes to reunions...
I saw them twice that year.

The first time in Gigantour with Megadeth and the second time opening for Judas Priest.

Both times they put on a great show and played songs such as "Medusa" that I never thought I would hear.

It was awesome.

Same here, first on Gods of Metal festival in Italy (together with Megadeth, Slayer, Iron Maiden, Accept, Obituary ...) when they played in the middle of the day and made into my top 5 all-time best shows ever, and two weeks after that on Metalcamp, when they were headliners and played at about 23:00, which wasn't as good as the 1st show but still well above average.

Posted: **Sat Sep 20, 2008 11:15 am**

I enjoyed the Adramelch reunion a lot...
And also the Medieval Steel CD was superb, but were there also some new tracks on it? I think of "Lost In The City" for instance....excellent tune!

Posted: **Sat Sep 20, 2008 11:41 am**

I will echo most of the posts here, especially considering the Brocas Helm comeback album which is as strong as their 80s albums, Also, Destructor made a fantastic album.

However, I find it hard to believe people like the Celtic Frost album Monotheist. I'm not starting a flame war here, but I thought it was an atrocious attempt at staying "relevant". A horrible, horrible album IMHO. Never liked Iron Maiden much after the mid 80s either, but I realise that's nothing to do with the Objective quality of their records.

I was really anxious for a new Heathen album after hearing the demo, but what's happening now?

Posted: **Sat Sep 20, 2008 2:04 pm**

great_knuthulhu wrote: I was really anxious for a new Heathen album after hearing the demo, but what's happening now?

I think they recently started with the recording....

Posted: **Sat Sep 20, 2008 3:53 pm**

reunion live shows are generally better than 'comeback' albums... with the exception of Brocas Helm - Defender of the Crown and a few more such as Adramelch...not all new songs on the releases but still blows the shit out of modern crap

Posted: **Sat Sep 20, 2008 5:15 pm**

Mercyful Fate did it well back in 90s..

Posted: **Sat Sep 20, 2008 7:01 pm**

The new Cynic (usa) album will not disappoint anyone.

Posted: **Sat Sep 20, 2008 7:48 pm**

I beg to differ

Posted: **Sat Sep 20, 2008 7:55 pm**

now im really looking forward in MILTIA and RUTHLESS live...

someone told me Forbidden kicked serious ass too

Posted: **Sat Sep 20, 2008 7:58 pm**

To elaborate a bit on new Cynic. From Invisible Oranges blog, when discussing Cynic - Focus, that was my comment

Awesome! Discussing a HM classic! And not just "back in the day" talk since this is relevant to the upcoming album. Your opinion on the record is mostly congruent to mine, but here's a few personal thoughts:

I was sorta intimidated by metaldom to like "Focus" for about the first five years of listening to it. I kept hearing about what an amazing record it was and the technicality on show was certainly indicative of some sort of genius but there was something wrong although I couldn't put my finger on it. I think now a lot of the scene was just dazzled but didn't try to understand the record. While some cuts in it flow excellently in terms of music (Veil of Maya, Uroboric Forms) the record is very torn on issues of aesthetic and philosophy.

The material is very sterile and calculated, the sound job suits this I feel but then again I can't even begin to think of how this record would sound with a different production. Nevertheless that is not where the problem lies.

Death metal was really a transient shell for Cynic and it would have been much better had they left it completely behind by the time of 'Focus'. The demos were as good death metal as Cynic would ever do, and they shouldn't have felt the need to accommodate for 'Floridaness' what with the cookie cutter session vocalist (robot voice was all this record needed!) and various bits of comfortable double-bass 'extremity'.

The spiritual lyrics are if anything, creepy to me, along with the mid-swim christening photos and thanks towards spiritual gurus in the liner notes. I can deal with creepy metal just fine, but not if it trips itself over as "Focus" does by marrying incompatible form to content. This isn't death metal, this is the exact opposite: it's life metal. Totally willpower affirming, concerned with a higher ontology (not nihilism). The appropriate shell for this sort of aesthetic is meticulously crafted ambient and progressive metal (or what have you) and it's no wonder that is exactly the direction key members from this band went to after "Focus". It's slightly ironic that this unworkable disparity between form and content serves make such a record appear... unfocused.

I didn't go see Cynic play their old songs in the recent tour because I felt it was quite disingenuous to provide voiceover backup brutal vocals. If they understood the error inherent in "Focus" they should have gone ahead and removed all brutal vocals from the old songs, it would only serve to better them.

The record hasn't aged well then, because it was moving on in a different direction on one side but the other foot remained planted firmly in a conventional form of what 'death metal' was expected to be by a 1990ish audience in Florida. In sharp contrast, prime Atheist material that didn't give a fuck remains absolutely stunning today (in a live setting too, I can say from experience) as does tangentially related offerings from Watchtower, Anacrusis or even Psychotic Waltz.

"Focus" is a transitional album and Cynic would have benefited greatly from having waited the transition out before recording and not giving a fuck if they were considered 'metal' enough by the scene they operated in. Sadly it seems "Traced in Air" will suffer from genre conventions as well, Paul having suddenly realized how much of a cult hit "Focus" was, will probably not risk alienating that audience he came to know again in the last tour. I am troubled by a promotion of more disingenuousness but will have to wait and see in any case.

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