The Metal Files

I remember the day that my best friend came home from a California vacation in 1984 and he brought back Night On Brocken…I was instantly a fan.

Night on Brocken – 1984
Upon first listen, I did like most and compared John Arch to Bruce Dickinson but that comparison quickly faded away. John’s voice, Matheos’ songwriting and Zimmerman’s drumming style were the perfect combination. Other than the 2 instrumentals on this one, it’s fabulous. Buried Alive, The Calling and Damnation are my utmost faves.
9/10

Spectre Within – 1985
Whoa. Talk about improving on a formula that was already awesome. This album is perfect. Front to back. Perfect. I don’t know what else I could say about it.
10/10

Awaken the Guardian – 1986
Three in a row? Really? I am torn sometimes as to which I like better; Spectre or Awaken. Arch’s vocal harmonies and the songs Guardian and Giant’s Lore are phenomenal.
10/10

No Exit – 1988
Enter Ray Alder…too bad he still hasn’t exited! Upon first listen, I hated this album. Silent Cries was alright and the Ivory Gate of Dreams was good, but Ray’s nasaly whine didn’t do it for me. Zimmerman’s drumming was pretty good. Lyrically they started to tank on this one. WHIMPY. I bought the recent reissue and can stomach it a little better than I did 20 years ago, but it’s still not great.
5/10

Perfect Symmetry – 1989 I was really excited about this one coming out mainly because Mark Zonder was playing on it. I’d been a huge fan of his playing since Warlord. He did a good job on this album and the songs, in general, were much better than No Exit. I still didn’t care much for Ray’s singing but the songs Through Different Eyes and The Arena are great. They are certainly turning into a flower metal band at this point.
7.5/10

Parallels – 1991
WHIMPY FLOWER “METAL”. This is where they started to compete with Dream Theater to see who could consistently release the most boring albums ever.
1/10 – I liked The Eleventh Hour

Inside Out – 1994
I still can’t believe I actually gave this a chance. It didn’t deserve it. Whiny whimpy introspective lyrics and boring rock.
0/10

Everything after…I just stopped. I couldn’t take it any more.