I believe I've mentioned that my music listening history started with my father's classic rock collection. While the big three have remained pretty constant in my life, if there was a fourth, it would be Styx. I remember getting into them in the mid-90s, enjoying the purple A&M compilation album my dad had. They really were the first "hard rock" band I got into, and they've stayed with me over the years, as I've never grown tired of their unique blend of distorted guitars and theatrical ballads. Perhaps not unique for the 70s, but still iconic in all the right ways. This time, I decided to focus just on their studio albums, largely because I had been working on this for a few years, and I was hoping to get it out before the end of the year with their latest album. I didn't quite succeed, as you can tell, but it's been a fun ride regardless.
Friday, January 23, 2026
Thursday, June 30, 2022
New Videos - June 2022!
The end of the month means it's time to catch up on some new videos! Plenty of power metal with this one, but I got a few rock tracks in there for good measure. I'm getting pretty excited for a lot of these albums showing up later this year. Turn these up!
Let's start with something fast and crunchy! Between this and "Violent Shadows," Blind Guardian have definitely been getting back to their older, speed metal days, but I'm here for it. This is some epic shredding and once again Kürsch's vocals bring the heft to bring the song alive.
To be honest, I kind of expected The Secret to be Alan Parsons's last album, based on some of the themes there, but I guess he's got more ideas to share. Tapping into Tommy Shaw is an interesting choice, though it's still a solid performance. A bit of a hard rock vibe, though, making it a curious listen that might be a sign of whatever the legendary engineer has in mind for the future.
Birth is definitely tapping into that classic psychedelic rock style, providing this 9 minute single that sort of meanders about, but in a good way. It largely made me think of Pink Floyd's more laidback, folkier songs, like on Obscured By Clouds. A solid jam, with good atmosphere.
Dragonland are back after ten years! Instead of continuing their fantasy story, they're doing a sci-fi concept album, but they retain much of their symphonic power metal style, specifically the stuff they did on their album Contact, which had some sci-fi stuff on it as well. It's like they haven't missed a beat!
Wow! I had no idea HammerKing would be coming back so quickly! I guess they had a bunch more HammerFall-flavored power metal to share. Not that I'm complaining! Their last album easily made to Top 5 for last year, and if it's going to be more of the same, I'm very much on board!
I saw this group pop up earlier in the year, but I thought they would be more folky or black metal, so when I discovered that they were symphonic power metal, I did a bit of a double take. I'm not quite sure if I have a solid feel for the band from this song alone, as it veers between Rhapsody of Fire orchestral bombast and Iron Maiden-style hooks, but I can tell this has some interesting potential.