Voting has to restart...

Due to problems with the host (blogger), the previous poll disappeared (I'm not quite sure why, I'm new to blogging, but I assume it had something to do with the issues they were having yesterday).  Therefore, I will restart the voting, and it will be open until the end of next week.

Reminder:  The voting system will allow for you to vote more than once, and the top picked albums will be given a "legendary" status in their post title.

I have decided to do this weekly, and I will not post more albums until next week.  However, I might still post random stuff, so keep on the look out...

~LeetMetalhead~

Voting Time!

From now on, I've decided that we should vote on which bands/albums get to have a special legendary status of officially being part of the Heavy Metal Hall of Fame (as simply being listed on here doesn't mean anything).  I will be putting these polls up almost every week, but this first one may stay up for a while until we get more people here.

So here's a recap of how things will work:

1) I put up reviews of bands/albums on here whether by my choice or by the request of one of you.
2) After 5-10 bands reviewed, I put up a poll with all of the bands on there (since the previous poll).  And you can vote on more than one, so we wont have a situation where there are multiple legendary bands but only one gets picked.
3) There will be a limit of votes that a band needs to get--depending on the total votes--to be put into the legendary status.
4) I will add the word "legendary" on the title of the chosen bands' posts, and I will most likely make a list somewhere of all of the chosen bands.

Please let me know for any suggestions.

~LeetMetalhead~

Dismember

Band: Dismember
Genre: Death Metal
Album(s): Like An Everflowing Stream
Sample: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0ZCAarIVSI

Dismember is one of my absolute favorites of all time (I'll try to make this as unbiased as possible), and still that is not the reason why I put them on here, as their album "Like An Everflowing Stream" is a well-known classic by most metalheads.  Dismember play the style of death metal that emerged from Sweden, known as....well....Swedish death metal.  And in many ways, Dismember perfected this genre with their album "Like an..." with some of the most classic riffs to date.

Let me explain to you what Swedish death metal is in the most practical manner:  Take old school death metal, and gently sprinkle it with some grim, black metal melodies produced by tremolo picking, and on top of that add the sickened growls of legends such as Matti Karki.  Now all we have to do is further tune down the guitars, drop the quality of the production (to get that right atmosphere), and play some wicked death metal drums from hell (which of course doesn't mean much...but hell, I'm sure you'll understand it when you take a listen).  


Looking at the paragraph above, I feel like I actually made that sound kind of easy!  And of course one thing to realize is that the hardest part is to make it all sound good with original riffing & songwriting, which is where Dismember comes.  Please, take a listen and understand what I mean.   

Death [LEGENDARY]

Band: Death
Genre: Death Metal, Progressive Death Metal
Album(s): Scream Bloody Gore
Sample: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8U_0SsZXXM

Before putting up any more death metal classics, I realized that I simply had to get this one up first.  The works of the band Death--considered by many to be the first death metal band--have had an astounding impact on both death metal and metal as a whole.  Their music on the album "Scream Bloody Gore" is filled with loads of growls & screams, low-tuned distorted guitars, and brutal drumming.  The main mastermind behind such innovative work is Chuck Schuldiner, who is often renowned as the "Father of Death Metal."  Chuck performed the vocals, guitars AND bass on "Scream..." where he helped perfect the death metal growl while shredding brutal solos on his guitar.  Speaking of the guitar, I feel like the guitar work on "Scream..." plays a major role in distinguishing this album as death metal; from the scales used, to the tempo changes, and even to the solos, everything seems to reflect the ideal death metal mood.  On top of that, the lyrics helped add on to this dark atmosphere with its themes revolving around zombies, gore, death, etc.  Overall, this band and album are a great listen for anyone who wants to get a better idea of death metal, or even for those of us who miss the old school sound.

Possessed

Band: Possessed
Genre: Thrash/Death Metal
Album(s): Seven Churches 
Sample: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YfOGtXz4wg

Possessed's "Seven Churches" is one of the albums from the historical transition from thrash metal into death metal.  Possessed make it on the list because of their outstanding effort to keep pushing the limits of metal extremity with rawer production and emphasized satanic imagery.  On the other hand, the music itself is full of amazing talent and is considered today as one of the finest of its era.

Bolt Thrower

Band: Bolt Thrower

Genre: Death Metal

Albums: Realm of Chaos (Slaves to Darkness)

Sample: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xqOf-KjdVY

We can't have the Heavy Metal Hall of Fame without including the infamous Bolt Thrower on here!  These guys truly understand the spirit of death metal: war, death and Warhammer 40k (which is the game their themes have been heavily influenced by, including the band's name).  Each song includes brutal riffs, where the mixture of the guitars and drums sound like the cries of machine guns slaughtering thousands of its victims in the middle of a bloody battlefield.  If you enjoy war and death metal, this one is for you!