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In Flames- Lunar Strain. Thanks to Taranis for putting this into my mind. I bought the reissue in 99 and loved Behind Space, which I think I had recorded from the Metal Show. The album never clicked with me back then, but I'm surprised at how much of it still sounds familiar. I am really enjoying it now. I don't remeber it being SO folky, which is a nice surprise. I never bothered with anything else by them so maybe I should check out their other 90s albums, from before they turned to the modern groove style.

Subterranean on in the car on the way home. Sounds great as well. Delighted to have revisited this.

Each one gets less like the first one as the albums fly by. Whoracle the last good one IMO, but some like the next couple too. Awful altogether after that, though.

Always great revisiting a band or album previously written off and finding that your opinion has changed. Desaster, Godkiller, Scorpions are among the many for me like that.

Forgot to mention the listener-voted Top 100 metal songs (in association with Hot Press?), I think it was in the later part of the first or early part of the second year of the show. It was the first time I ever heard Bathory's Call from the Grave, which was a fairly life-altering few minutes.

It would be class to see that list now.

Subterranean is also class, but I must say, I really do love the next two albums, The Jester Race and Whoracle, too. They lost me then, though.

I tend to listen to Lunar Strain less out of laziness, as I have it on vinyl and the others on CD, but it is probably the pick of the bunch.

Last five:
Bolt Thrower (England) – The Fourth Crusade (1992, needs no introduction, certainly my favourite album of theirs).

Forefather (England) – The Fighting Man (2000, bought after rave reviews in Metalworks, pagan metal, great opening track and a couple of other great tracks, but some that have always bugged the shit out of me too).

Gràb (Bayern) – Kremiss (2025, really good black metal with a bit of an atmosphere, certainly in my top ten from last year, played it a bit too much for a chunk of last year, but good to come back to it).

Rivers Like Veins (Poland) – Z iskier srebrnych orszaków (2019, more black metal with a bit of an atmosphere, this one has really grown on me over the past year or so, having not thought much of it before that).

In Flames (Sweden) – Lunar Strain (1994, one of the original and best NWSMDM albums, still class).

As already said, it was mad that Beherit, Sentenced, Darkthrone, Emperor, Enslaved, etc., got airplay on Sunday evening on a national radio station in my last year of primary school and first year of secondary. It was mental to hear stuff on the radio you were reading about in the likes of Ultrakill and Terrorizer, and it was only because of the Metal Show that I wasn't completely lost when I picked up those magazines for the first time.

I remember being delighted when it was mentioned on the Beat Box that there was finally going to be a Metal Show on 2FM, starting that night, even if it took until the second week to tune in (I remember him playing Body Parts by Sodom in the first hour a couple of songs in and As the World Burns by Bolt Thrower in the second). It was always great when John Kenny filled in for Dave Fanning before that, as he would play a few metal songs. I taped Ministry's Just One Fix and two Richard III songs in August 1992 when he filled in for him, and I suppose positive feedback to that led to the show starting in September or October.

It really should have started earlier, as 1992 was when loads of lads were getting into rave and yokes, which decimated the potential listenership.

I have a few tapes from the early years still. Lost the best one in 1994, alas.

Was it perfect? Of course not, there was no way he could keep everybody happy, and while he was not really into the extreme stuff, he was certainly into many of the metal bands he played. Several of my tapes have him saying things like "I like that album, I must say" (e.g. Always).

I also had the feeling the poor chap was rarely given press-releases or any other info to go with some of the albums and had to wing it and try to figure out what the logos said. To this day, I've not been able to figure out what he meant by the name one of the Irish demos he played in 1994 or 1995.

It did get a bit worse as time went on, but that was as much due to the way metal was moving as to the show itself. There was rarely anything in the first hour worth taping after 1996 or so, but it was still essential listening to hear about gigs, etc., as for the likes of myself in Ennis, it was the only way of hearing about anything (and even then, it was only a fraction of what was going on, at times), especially before the great leap forward in the Irish scene in 1998.

Fear Factory: Demanufacture

Wearing the T-shirt, first listen in a while. Still class.

Great album, probably the best album of its type (industrial-tinged death metal? it is a hard one to categorise). Still remember being absolutely blown away by the first track after putting the record on the turntable when it came out. I will stick it on right away, it has been years at this stage!

Last five,

In Flames (Sweden) – The Jester Race (1996, one of the best two or three of the mainstream NWSMDM albums, and still great in my opinion)
New Model Army (England) – Winter (2016, prompted to spin this by Mr McLove, good stuff, even if nowhere near as good as the classic albums by them)
Nedgravd (Norway) – Acension (2026, never heard of this band until seeing them in this thread, really cool fairly filthy death metal)
Cage (USA) – Astrology (2000, power metal, woke up with one of the songs in my head yesterday morning, figured spinning it would be less painful than using a knitting needle to get it back out of my head; no idea why I own this album, woke up with it after a wild night out in San Francisco, but a couple of the songs are catchy)
One of Nine (USA) – Eternal Sorcery (2023, black metal, cool atmosphere, had missed this album completely when it came out, but gave it a go after liking the one from last year, and this one is even better)

30 quid felt like a bargain for it. There was a copy of the first album in there too.

That is quite the bargain, these days. I will keep up hope that I will grab it some day.

That Nedgravd is class too, one of the best DM albums I've heard in a while.

Giving that New Model Army Winter album a spin now too, good stuff. I love several of their early albums, but for some reason I'd been hesitant to check out the newer stuff.

Sabbat - Dreamweaver

Snagged a second hand copy of this in town yesterday and have been spinning it this evening. Best UK thrash album of all time. How the fuck did he memorise all those lyrics though, the lyric sheet is 3 pages of tiny font.

Also,still had the Noise records merch sheet in it too!

That is one hell of a find! It has been a gap in my collection for years too, but I gave up hope years ago of ever getting a copy for a sane price.

Invunche - Atavismo
Blasphemy - Blood Upon the Altar
Incantation - Mortal Throne of Nazarene

Glad there is someone else on here into this album, I have been hooked the past few months, playing it four or five times a week still.

Morbid Angel - Covenant
 

My favourite album of theirs, still gets a spin once a month or so.

Last five for me:

Deathspell Omega (France and Finland) – The Long Defeat (2022, will certainly be on my top ten for the decade, even if it is a huge departure from the previous two phases/styles of this project).

Taake (Norway) – Over Bjoergvin graater himmerik (2002, having listened to the new song, I had to go and stick on his best album).

Falkenbach (Germany) – Ok Nefna Tysvar Ty (2003, I was watching Slow Horses last week, which repeatedly has the same melody as Track 5 here [reworked from the first album], which reminded me that it had been a few years since I indulged in this cheesefest).

Fire Magic (USA) – Memories of Fire (2026, like a mixture of Forefather, very early In Flames, and some of the other Swedish stuff straddling the boundary between black metal and melodic death metal, been playing it a lot over the last few weeks, but I wonder would it have gotten much attention if it came out in the late 90s, considering there was an album like this coming out every month back then).

Kampfar (Norway) – Kampfar (1996, I could hardly put on Taake without putting Kampfar on, the first few releases are the best of their kind, even if they became a snoozefest later on).

Bestial Warlust - Vengeance War 'till Death
Teitanblood - Death
Holocausto - Campo de Extermínio

War metal luncheon

That must have been like having some PCP for lunch: ready to take on Robocop!

Last five:
Kvist (Norway) – For Kunsten Maa Vi Evig Vike (1996, needs no introduction)
White Rune (Finland) – Eventide on Aurora (2025, one of the best keyboardy black metal albums of the last few years)
Këkht Aräkh (Ukraine/Germany) – Morningstar (2026, a bit too much hype and hipsterism around this project, but it is still a good album)
Lifelover (Sweden) – Sjukdom (2011, for my money one of the best ever depressive black metal albums, and some great tracks on there)
Sühopfer (France) – Nous sommes d'hier (2023, a bit like a more black metal version of Eucharist, well worth a listen)

Abigor- Verwüstung/ Invoke The Dark Age.

Nothing I've listened to by Abigor has ever really grabbed me before. I think their later stuff is a bit sterile and technical, is that right? This album is getting reissued by Darkness Shall Rise so I've thrown it on and it's really good. "True" sounding medieval-ish black metal. Just my cup of tea, really. Might have to make an expensive order...

Classic album. If you like that, you'll like the Orkblut EP and Nachthymnen. Things start to go a bit crazy with Opus IV, but it is a savage album, and possibly the last excellent one. Supreme Immortal Art was the first one I bought by them back when it came out, and it is bananas (so much so that it was a year or two before I bothered buying anything else by them); I used to put it on at parties in 1998 and 1999 when people were on loads of yokes to melt their brains, worked every time.

The more spacey stuff starts after that, and the albums get increasingly sterile.

The first couple of Heidenreich releases are also worth checking out, as are some of Peter K's other side-projects.

...ripping vids of the gig they did in Fermoy, Cork back in the day a few weeks back.

Need to see these vids.
My young fella would love to see stuff like this from his home town.

Still miffed I had to miss this one due to having to work.

Three of the Thus Defiled albums and some of the demos (especially the Fire Serpent Dawn promo) are class.

Two ex-members were in Iceni later on too, whose 2010 demo/self-released album is one of the best things done by an English band.

Last five:
Warning (England) – Rituals of Shame (2026, long awaited and worth the wait, even if you'll have to be scraped off the floor afterwards).
Gorgoroth (Norge) – Under the Sign of Hell 2011 (2011, not sure what the fuck I was thinking putting this on, an absolute travesty to re-record one of the best ever black metal albums, making it shitter in every way).
White Death (Finland) – White Death (2017, sounds like a lot of other stuff that has come out on the same label, but really well done with some great songs).
Bull of Apis Bull of Bronze (USA) – The Fractal Ouroboros (2023, great follow-up to the the first album by this very interesting  black-metal-adjacent band).
Vígljós (Switzerland) – Tome II: Ignis Sacer (2025, black metal about bees, certainly one of my top ten albums from last year, has all the right ingredients).

Next up: ZZ Top – Eliminator, one of my go to records when the thermometer heads up past 35°.