Blind Guardian - Battalions Of Fear [1988]

And back to some metal; since their inception, Blind Guardian have pretty much embodied everything that is good about power metal. That is to say, not the terrible axis of power metal, your Dragonforce, your Sabaton, your Kamelot, but rather, metal with drive, hooks galore and, well, power. Every song on this is a winner, from the opener 'Majesty' (which is also quite epic in its writing), to the closer proper and title track 'Battalions Of Fear' (although it must be noted that the instrumental outro 'By The Gates Of Moria' is far from worthless). Although I previously made this claim about Somewhere Far Beyond, I've changed my mind; this is Blind Guardian's defining moment.

192 kbps

Mediafire
Zippyshare
Depositfiles
iFolder

The Swanky's - The Very Best Of Hero [1985]

Yes, that apostrophe irritates me as much as it does you. But I'm willing to overlook it just this once, as this is pretty much the defining album of Japanese hardcore punk. As that won't mean much to many of my readers, imagine if S.O.B. had released Don't Be Swindle in the early to mid 80s - this essentially sounds like that (with a few differences, obviously). Don't worry, it's also the case that this sounds far more different to Never Mind The Bollocks than the cover would suggest. In reality, this is proto-grind, with the emphasis on the 'proto'; for much of the album this is closer to standard punk than grind or powerviolence, but when The Swanky's (ugh) let rip, for instance on 'Damaging Noise', one can certainly hear a few of those sounds in the mix.

320 kbps

Mediafire
Zippyshare
Depositfiles
iFolder

Re-upload: Manilla Road - Crystal Logic [1983]

Manilla Road are a perpetually underrated speed/power metal band, with elements of thrash. Throughout their 14 album career, they have not released a bad one, however, this is their best. And their lyric 'I'm lost in necropolis' will always sound to me like 'I'm lost in the gravalax'.

Re-upload notes: I was just listening to this today and it struck me how good it was, and how I should therefore re-upload it. This is essential.

128 kbps

Mediafire
Rapidshare
DepositFiles
iFolder

Jean Sibelius - Symphonic Poem 'Finlandia', Op. 26

So the view count for the Dusek symphony suggests that my audience have either forgotten about Court In The Act or don't give a shit about classical. TOO FUCKING BAD. This is another beautiful piece of classical music, in a somewhat more stylistically simple manner than most classical. Particularly towards the latter half of the piece, there is a repeated gallant motif which sounds quite appropriate for a 'symphonic poem' - certainly major key, it counteracts the relatively moody beginning of the piece rather well. Again, this piece is rather bombastic, but this is typical of the later Romantic period that Sibelius played a rather key part in. Indeed, Sibelius' music is so beautiful that they named a compositional program after him. This is one of the pieces of classical music that simply must be heard in one's life.

217 kbps VBR

Mediafire
Zippyshare
Depositfiles
iFolder

František Xaver Dušek - Symphony In G Major, Altner G2

N.B. This post is tagged with the year of his death as I cannot find any information about when exactly the symphony was written. František Xaver Dušek was a Czech composer, who despite writing his music mainly in the Baroque era, mainly wrote in a Classical style, something which is clear to see (well, hear) here. That's not to say that he didn't take influence from the bourgeoning canon of his contemporaries; one can also clearly hear the kind of jangly stringed instruments that wouldn't be a surprise in a Vivaldi composition. However, the main influence was a Classical one, and this led to the work here, which is surprisingly bombastic for a pre-Romantic work. It's also rather short - at only 20-something minutes long it should be rather appealing to those who can't stomach 40+ minutes of classical at once (and I know you're not alone if you fit this description). An underrated and excellent composer.

192 kbps

Mediafire
Zippyshare
Depositfiles
iFolder

Court In The Act Thrash Week: Slayer - Hell Awaits [1985] (re-upload)

This is Slayer's follow-up to their 'Show No Mercy' debut, and I honestly believe that it is their best. Again, this was a heavy influence on the death and black metal scenes, and this album rightly goes down in the annals of metal as legendary.

Re-upload notes: Anyone who thinks that Reign In Blood is better is a moron. There, I said it.

~200 kbps VBR

Mediafire
Zippyshare
Depositfiles
iFolder

Court In The Act Thrash Week: Possessed - Seven Churches [1985] (re-upload)

Debatably the first death metal album ever - the debate centres not around whether it was first, but whether it was DM or not - either way, it's a stellar piece of aggressive thrash that is yet further testament to put to bed Kerry King's claim that Slayer have ever been the most extreme band in the world.

320 kbps

Mediafire
Zippyshare
Depositfiles
iFolder