The Agent of Oblvion Metal Alphabet: 'H' is for HATE ETERNAL

[Agent of Oblivion]

I guess. What the fuck happened to the letter H in metal anyway? H is the first letter of both Heavy and Hell! Can't really pick Hellhammer, though, because that's the same thing as Celtic Frost. Hypocrisy sings about alien abductions which are cool and all, but they're kinda meh. Hammerfall is the gayest band on earth, so here I am with Hate Eternal, which aren't my favorite by any means, but have a tremendous drummer in Derek Roddy and Erik Rutan, who was in Morbid Angel, so at worst you're getting some perfectly acceptable death metal. I'm saving my energy for the next two letters, where I'm probably going to go on and on and on with ridiculous superlatives.

Hate Eternal - To Know Our Enemies
Behold Judas-Hate Eternal


There are about a thousand videos of Roddy just playing drums on youtube. Here's one.
Derek Roddy (Hate Eternal) - "Path to the Eternal Gods"

Apparently he left the band in 2006. Didn't know that.

I'm done. Go ahead and talk about Helloween, Slayer.

 

[Incandenza]

Hate Eternal sounds like the name of a metalcore band.

 

[Agent of Oblivion]

Well, there's Hatebreed, which is the most generic metalcore band in the universe.

 

[Wario Lemieux]

A shiny buffalo nickel says Slayer picks Helloween. I'm going to contribute with The Haunted. They went from thrash on their first album to melodic death metal on their second album to "holy shit that sucked" on their third album. Then, their fourth album was back to thrash, then the fifth was In Flames-like wusstastic melohardrocksuck, then the most recent one was a pretty awesome mix of 4 and 5.

Examples later, when my internet quits being asstastic.

 

[Slayer]

I'm done. Go ahead and talk about Helloween, Slayer.

A shiny buffalo nickel says Slayer picks Helloween.

OIC

Rob Halford left Judas Priest after the classic Painkiller album in 1990 and would form alternative metal band Fight, releasing two decent albums in the early 90's. He would then release an industrial project under the name of Two, around the same time that he confirmed the open secret that he was gay. After disappearing for a couple years, he came back with a big surprise in 2000, forming a new metal band simply called Halford. Halford released two albums, Resurrection (2000) and The Crucible (2002), and a live album Live Insurrection. As you well know, Halford would reunite with JP in 2005 to release the pedestrian Angel of Retribution and awful Nostradamus. His two solo albums IMO fucking blow away what he's done since going back to JP.

I definitely recommend picking up the live album as it has performances of songs from Resurrection which I prefer to their studio versions, plus good songs from Fight and, of course, classic Priest. Crucible is worthwhile as well.

("The One You Love to Hate") - from Live Insurrection (duet with Bruce fucking Dickinson)
("Saviour") - ibid
("Slow Down") - ibid

("The Crucible") - from The Crucible

 

[Slayer]

Also

Hammerfall is the gayest band on earth

 

[Slayer]

Okay, since Agent and Wario decided to call their shot (even though I did tip my hand in the previous thread), I will go ahead and indulge as I had originally intended to.

Helloween: The greatest fucking power metal band, period.

I don’t want to write too long an article, so I’ll concentrate on the first three albums. Helloween formed in Germany in the early 80’s as a quartet with guitarists Kai Hansen (who also did vocals) and Michael Weikath as the main songwriters. In 1985 they released an s/t EP and one year later released the speed-metal classic Walls of Jericho. Today the EP and WOJ are sold together in a single compilation, along with the later single “Judas”.

("Starlight") – from s/t EP
("Ride the Sky") – from WOJ
("How Many Tears") – ibid

After WOJ, Hansen tired of pulling double duty and wanted to concentrate on playing guitar, so the band hired an 18 y/o Geoff Tate-influenced singer by the name of Michael Kiske. Over the next two years, they would release two indisputable classic albums which would influence every power metal album that came thereafter, Keeper of the Seven Keys Part 1 and Keeper of the Seven Keys Part 2. I generally don’t like to say things like “You can’t be a fan of X if you don’t have Y “, but you can’t be a fan of power metal and not have these two albums.

("I`m Alive") – from KOT7K1
("Twilight of the Gods") – ibid
("Future World") – ibid

("Eagle Fly Free") – from KOT7K2
("You Always Walk Alone") – ibid
("March of Time") – ibid (probably my favorite power metal song ever)

Kai Hansen tired of traveling after the two tours and left to form Gamma Ray, leaving Weikath as the band’s main songwriter. Weikath brought in guitarist Roland Grapow and then released two of the biggest head-scratchers in metal history, Pink Bubbles Go Ape and Chameleon. While not abominations along the line of Load or Cold Lake, they are definitely albums to avoid in your Helloween collection.

In 1994, Weikath and Kiske had a falling out which led to the latter’s firing and bringing in of Pink Cream 69 (yes, that’s a real band; no, there’s no original joke you can make) singer Andi Deris, who possessed a lower-ranged raspier voice that called back to when Hansen was the band’s vocalist. Shortly thereafter they released their re-entry back into power metal greatness with Master of the Rings. To this day Deris and Weikath are still the core of Helloween, along with original bassist Marcus Grosskopf.

Deris-era Recommend: Keeper of the Seven Keys Legacy, Gambling with the Devil, The Dark Ride, Better than Raw.

 

[Slayer]

Finally, I'm not writing a full article or even posting any songs for them, but I will say in defense of Hammerfall that their first two albums Glory to the Brave and Legacy of Kings are modern power metal classics, with the former helping to kick off what I would call the "second wave of power metal" that was big in the late 90's/early 00's.

Their second two albums, Renegade and Crimson Thunder are very good as well.

Although they've had some decent songs on the four albums after CT, most of their newer stuff is meh.

 

[pbone]

Helloween - I Want Out (1988)

Probably one of my favorite songs ever.

 

[Agent of Oblivion]

Also

Hammerfall is the gayest band on earth

You win.