Minas Morgul is the album where the actual Summoning sound starts, and my favorite out of their discography. The story behind this album is quite interesting. At the beginning Summoning wasn't really different from the other traditional BM bands: Satanic, riff-oriented, raw production etc. since their debut album Lugburz was a pure black metal album (you can still hear them trying to find their actual sound in this album, though). They also had a drummer here, whom Silenius and Protector parted their ways later. After parting their ways with him, they didn't want a new drummer for the band, actually Protector knew how to play drums, but he didn't want to be the drummer neither. Instead, they went for a slower, epic-sounding drum patterns with reverb, and keyboards became the essence of their unique sound. Minas Morgul was the first album to feature this sound. The album starts with "Soul Wandering", the intro track, which gives hints about the album, and the medieval journey starts. "Lugburz" kicks in, then suddenly you're in a different land, out of this world, and you don't even realize how you listened to the whole album. ... See More

A great start for Blind Guardian in their metal journey. Well, this album is quite different from their later albums, where they went more in the European power metal direction. The album starts with the fan favorite track, "Majesty", which has a very interesting intro that you wouldn't guess the song will speed up later. The intro suddenly ends with a thunder sound effect, then the song starts along with Hansi's energetic scream. The whole album carries the same chaotic energy which I love so much. Just like every Blind Guardian album, this album also has insanely catchy choruses. To be honest, the tracks in the album sound very similar to each other, but who cares that if every track sounds good. Overall, this album is a speed metal masterpiece.

All of Iron Maiden's bad habits in one album. Progressive approach just for the sake of it, the intros are too long that I almost fell asleep while waiting for the song to start. I'm not against songs over 10 minutes long, in fact, I enjoy metal epics a lot, but they have to make it interesting instead of a snooze-fest. Well actually, Steve Harris wrote an amazing epic like "The Rime of The Ancient Mariner" back then, maybe they are getting old and just don't have that spirit anymore, I don't know. The only song I consider good is probably "The Writing on The Wall", which is still average at most. "Hell on Earth" could be good, but it suffers from the same problem I've mentioned before. The intro and outro are unnecessarily long. Glad some fans enjoy the album, just not my cup of tea.

Another fun-to-listen-to Stratovarius album. A power metal album that won't disappoint power metal fans, even though it isn't as epic as Visions album. The album has an uplifting opener with a really catchy chorus - "Hunting High and Low". Second track "Millennium" carries the same spirit as well. Then we have "Mother Gaia" which I find myself skipping all the time, a boring ballad in my opinion. 4th track "Phoenix" makes a great come-back with that uplifting sound, then it continues with that style for the rest of the album except "Celestial Dream", a ballad again, which doesn't add anything special to the album, just not as good as "Forever" from their 5th album, Episode. Overall good album though.