Awesome overview of this band! I have a question for you Alan - have you heard the Canadian band Genghis Khan and their album "Who Art in Hell"? I don't see anyone talk about it. Recorded in 1981 and only got an official release February 2023. One English guy in the band - he moved to Canada and formed a band with a very NWOBHM-ish sound. Great hidden gem - the opening title track "Our Father Who Art In Hell" is very memorable!

Cool band. I get them mixed up or I associate them or I confuse them… with The Lord Slough Feg 🤔 AnyWho, no matter, thanks for making posting sharing caring… you freaking rule

My sister the basses of Malibu Barbi was tought by cuff Berton from Metallica before Metallica made it

That’s awesome that you did a feature on Brocas Helm. I love their sloppy, yet virtuoso playing, and their quirky writing style. I just wish that they were a little more prolific. Quality over quantity, I guess. Cool vinyl pieces, too. Cheers

holy shit! I just went and listened to Smokin Roadie (on spotify somehow lol) How are they that good?? Rip Off fucking rocks!

What a blast that was!! Been meaning to check them out for a while. I'm somehow reminded of the late era NWOBHM album "Chasing The Storm" by Tröjan. They have a similar, barely under control, hanging ten, running off the rails, everything's about to explode sound to them.

Thanks for this Alan I've seen you show black death a couple of times on hm streams but this was my 1st time hearing anything by them and it's very much in my wheelhouse it's just a shame they've been so inconsistent with album releases but hey quality over quantity!

I love bands like that, where they sound like they're really enjoying themselves. Those over the top faux English accent vocals on the third song cheered me up no end.

Sounds like my kind of band! I'm going to have to check'em out. Thanks for the video Alan!

Oh yes Alan! 5 star metal. Gets filed right along with Manilla Road, Cirith Ungol, Warlord, the FEG, etc. This is a band you listen to in the basement while your setting up the table and waiting for your friends to show up with the Mountain Dew and Funyons for the Dungeons & Dragons game. Turn it up and pass the graph paper and dice!

Great pick, Alan! I'd describe all three studio albums as real gems. Stylistically, I'd classify them as between Epic and Speed Metal, somewhere between the Exciter you mentioned and - of course - Manilla Road and Cirith Ungol. Maybe with a little early Manowar pathos here and there. Although for me not even close on the same level of finesse, originality and sense for great songwriting as the bands mentioned above. Therefor they do had a significant penchant for completely over-the-top arrangements and ideas always on the verge of total madness. The third album from 2004 shows above all that this band - like Manilla Road, for example - didn't give a shit about contemporary conventions and standards, it sounds just as oldschool as its predecessors from over a decade ago.

I love Brocas Helm and i've seen them twice throughout the years and have also met them. Would love to see them next year at the warm-up for Keep it true, but it was sold out very fast.

Great video and one of the best possible topics. My favorite kind of metal (and music at all). Weird, epic, raw and (as stated) idiosyncratic. Weirdness of Brocas Helm is exceptional even in it's own niche. On par with such odd gems like Lordian Guard or Lords Of The Crimson Alliance. Hail from Poland!

cool video alan! never heard and always intrigued by the band.great to learn more about em! they sound insane , especially that drumming on the first two you played.

I like the term someone on Metal Archives used the describe their genre: dead-beat dad metal. Oddly seems apt. I haven't listened to the first two albums very much, but I got really into the third album after Cry of the Banshee and Drink the Blood of the Priest were included in the video game Brutal Legend (which, if you're unfamiliar with it, is a video game set in a world made of Heavy Metal; the soundtrack is killer). At least as the third album goes, Brocas Helm aee very unique, catchy, and have absolutely great riffs. The vocals are goofy but fit the music. I need to spend more time with the first two albums.

That's so funny you mentioned cocaine! I thought the same thing ,with a spinal tap humor or something! But fair warning ! Those numb euphoric deception s turn to yellow snow! 🤣

Broke-Ass helm sounds good

Cool video and explanation Alan!Really amazing and obscure heavy metal band. I would put them in the USPM category. Anyway i really love all of the 3 albums now. But just like you when i first heard Black Death album and the tittle track i didnt really know what to think it take some time to grow on me and now i freaking love them.

Platina used to be a larger label in the 60s but but was likely bundled in a label / catalogue sale to a larger output sometime in the 70s. In any case many of the obscure 80s hard rock metal and synth releases on Platina were pretty much “pay to play”.

Great stuff - thank you! You should check out the contemporary Swedish youth centre and amateur band comps from Sweden if you haven’t already :)

Hey Alan, do you collect any punk or other older, small press diy vinyl too? The Samhain and Misfits talk in this video reminded me that I find quite a lot of old DIY punk and NWOBHM releases share a number of similar visual aesthetics and performance energies (even if most the bands likely wouldn’t agree).

Very interesting picks again, Alan. Big up once more for the education!

Many of these NWOBHM singles have nearly gone the way of punk’s “Killed By Death” subgenre of hardly-pressed 7-inches. And by that of course I mean $$$$$.

I love seeing all your 7-inches. Haven’t seen all of the NWOBHM series yet so sorry if you’ve covered it, but do you have/enjoy Chainsaw’s Police & Politicians?

Oh man, class is in session! I admit my initial claim and video might not have been made to hold up to such an analysis. I am definitely tempted to make another follow up video to bolster my claim, but there’s a big chance I’ll continue to back up your claim. Either way my bias towards this time period definitely plays a role in my view of this era. Great and entertaining video and I appreciate you making a response to a video of mine in the first place! Cheers Alan 🍻

Good interesting discussion Alan while watching the video it made me realise how many of those albums I had on the lists that havn't been spun in a while so I will remedying that this weekend just in time for a week off work!

I have not watched Logans video and I have never listened to the band, but my guess is the band's name is SubRosa (doom/sludge/stoner) "sebrosa".

Hey Alan! I appreciate what you did here! It was an interesting presentation and compare/contrast on the subject. I gotta say man, I’m 45 but I really relate to Logan’s thoughts and examples on 2012-2016. Although as you said, for me the best were my late high school/college years (1996-2000). But there’s other time periods I really appreciate too. 2012-2016 was a good renaissance for me in that after being kind of stagnant for years, I found many new bands and releases I would now call modern classics and he showed several of them. You actually brought out a couple more. The one category I think you might have the best counter examples was your last one, was classic genres revitalized. For me, I think that your time period may be more substantial there. Great video! Speaking of, I hope to talk about 1991 with everyone on Friday. Now THAT was a groundbreaking year and one of my favorites in music.

oh mama - look at them spreadsheets. well done professor. this was a fun watch. when I premiered my video, the chat was in discussion regarding "future classics." how do we define that? Another factor is how long does a band need to be absent before a "return to form" or "comeback" album? but for me - the major personal interest, however only by association to his hypothesis, is a desire for greater acceptance of albums of the 21st century to be taken into same upper echelon of "essential listening" as the albums that had preceded them. I am getting old and younger minds need to be contributing, so thanks to Logan for the idea.

Seems to me the early 2010s is when a lot of these 00s teenagers that grew up listening to those genres us older heads kinda snicker at (deathcore / “scene” bands) started to get into more traditional styles. Once discovering this big fertile pasture of quality metal, critically acclaimed releases were suddenly propelled and supported by a hungry audience. That’s my subjective bias take. Interesting topic for sure.

Death Metal...yeah I got nothin" to add this week!! LOL

From one scientist to another - this is an excellent approach to the topic at hand. I’m going to listen to that Suffocation album again this afternoon. I remember being disappointed with that release, but it’s been a long time since I’ve spun it. Great job Professor

While I do listen to a lot of extreme metal, my bread and butter is more in the power and heavy metal subgenres. I did a cursory glance through my library and there were a lot of bands that released albums to were either a "return to form" or just really good after an extended period of mediocrity. A couple examples include Freedom Call's "Land of the Crimson Dawn", Galneryus' "Angel of Salvation", Avantasia's "The Mystery of Time", and even Testament's "Dark Roots of the Earth". Starting somewhere around 2004, power metal began to orient more toward this tepid AOR-style of music. A lot of the really good power metal bands like Stratovarius (their self-titled, Polaris, & Elysium), Edguy (Rocket Ride, Tinnitus Sanctus, Age of the Joker), Avantasia (The Scarecrow, The Angel of Babylon, and The Wicked Symphony), Sonata Arctica (Unia, The Day of Grace, Stones Grow Her Name), and Gamma Ray (Land of the Free II, which I liked, and To the Metal) all had put out at least one or two stinkers as their previous albums. In that 2012-2016 period, a lot of these bands would release really good material. There are also a bunch of newer bands that released their first albums or at least the ones that got them recognition like Visigoth, Night Demon, Skull Fist, and Cauldron. I guess maybe that whole NWOTHM scene may have just happened to gain popularity then.

I love that Cathedral. It’s probably my fav honestly.

Excellent video. Very interesting topic. Agreed that lots of important bands were releasing modern classics. Let’s not forget about worship music by anthrax, though. That one definitely helped revitalize them.

🤘🤘🤘

To think all this stuff was cheap and called shit back in the day, amazing it still thrives!

Ciao dont miss Calaverno traditional doom.

I think the color you’re thinking of is “twilight magenta.” Baaammmm. Smokin’ Roadie is mind blowing. Owe you a calzone for that. Have a lot of catching up to do. Apologies for the disappearance. Life happened.

I've always loved Born Again. Headless Cross I had to give that album a second chance recently. The first time I heard it was 1996 and didn't like it then but now I own it. Slayer rules forever!!!

Dude, i snoozed on Smokin' Roadie for decades on account of that band name. When i finally heard them, i couldn't believe how good they were.

All outstanding stuff today Alan! Of course I own none of that!! I know the Cynic single from vinyl rip digital files that were sent to me a few years ago. Smokin' Roadie and Dutchess both of course had tracks on the NWOBHM Vol.1-8 series as you said. Folks can find the entire series posted elsewhere on KZfaq. It's well worth seeking out. I don't know if Ru Phillips was on any of Bill Ward's other albums, but he was on Bill's first one, "Ward One: All Along The Way" which is an incredible prog/metal hybrid masterpiece.

I'm going to track down that Dutchess single. I like it mutch.

Great Stuff Alan, never heard of any of these bands ( like most stuff you show) Really dig the Cynic but enjoyed all of them, Take Care Alan

This was a great video to wake up to (I’m from Australia) the cynic song was pretty good, along with the dutchess single. PS I believe in your conspiracy theory! Also, cynic kind of sound like witchfinder general but less heavier

Certainly a case of where the bands sound nothing like their names I enjoyed all the clips you played really cool stuff thanks Alan!

Thank you for another awesome obscure NWOBHM video Alan. 3 really good contenders. Actually, I really like Smokin Roadie, on side A the singer channels a little Ian Gillan style. I haven't heard the Cynic full length album but now I need to track it down to give it a listen.

Dear Alan, it's my first time to listen to DUTCHESS tracks because I've been avoiding to get bootleg compilation CDs ashamedly made in my country 😅 They are really good and soon added in my want list regardless of possibly painful $$$ 😱

The second band might have been from Dutchess county, hence the name.😀❤️

How many people bought Cynic, thinking it was an earlier release by the technical progressive death metal band?😀❤️