Outliers // 2018

Jonathan Adams
Best of 2018, Lists!
You’ve seen it. You’ve debated it. You’ve cried over it. But what’s done is done: Our list of the best albums of the year is behind us, and there is much rejoicing. But what about the albums we loved that didn’t make the final cut?

Heavy Rewind – Edguy’s Mandrake

Eden Kupermintz
Heavy Rewind
I've been on a power metal kick lately. Oh, you've noticed have you? What with writing about Blind Guardian recently (and Iron Maiden, the power metal precursors), I've been dusting off old CD's. These pieces of plastic were the adornments of my teenage years, confused and lost in the same generic haze that envelops most people at that age. It was a good time, I must say. I had just discovered so many great bands: Dream Theater, Pantera, Metallica, Opeth, Children of Bodom. And Edguy. I was at the perfect age for their antics, particularly those of their earlier albums, then fresh off the press. Before they had turned up their personas to eleven, before they had signed to Nuclear Blast and released their massive Hellfire Club, Edguy was a brave band, doing many different things within their power metal classification. Mandrake is the perfect example of that, featuring a dark perspective on what power metal should be doing along with plenty of 80's pop influences. From the first track, I was hooked, my Blind Guardian saturated ears opening up completely to this new-yet-familiar sound.

Heavy Blog Is Heavy’s Editors’ Picks for February 2016

Eden Kupermintz
Editors' Picks
Welcome to our monthly post, Editors' Picks! In the recent two years, our editorial body has grown quite a bit: from basically two guys running everything, we now have around seven people managing the blog in an editorial capacity, including two (count 'em, two!) Editors in Chief. We thought we'd harness that unique body of editors and use their over-reaching perspective to shed light on specific releases each month. These might be releases we've already covered, stuff we haven't even mentioned once or somewhere in between; the idea is to accentuate great metal each month, helping you to sift out the truly great from the immense body of work that is released each month. The way it works is simple: each editor gets to pick one album released in January. We write short pieces about them and link you to the album, allowing you to check it out yourselves. There's no genre restrictions: expect to see some gnarly stuff on here as most of our editors have a very wide range of musical appreciation. Without further ado, let's dig in into this month's offering!