Unpopular Or Obscure Albums That You Think Are Great

I was going to go with "Obscure Albums That You Think No One Else Has Heard Of" but decided to broaden the topic.

I often find that I really enjoy certain albums - by established or obscure bands - that no one else seems to care about or even know about.   It was the same with movies, and that can be a future thread.  For now....

Name an album that you find yourself listening to a lot that is any combination of the following:

•  Very Obscure
  
•  Very Unpopular
  
•  Poorly Rated In Reviews
  
•  Sold Very Poorly 
  

I'll start...

A band I discovered last year was Sweden's Mercury Fang.   They are listed as a Christian band because they're on Rivel Records, but I don't really see much of that in their lyrics.  Nonetheless, I totally dig their 2nd album "Ignition."   

They're disbanded now, but played hard rock / AOR with modern production and a strong 70's and 80's flair. 
Nothing too original, and critics panned them, especially because they didn't like the singer. 
"Ignition" was released in 2007, and is better overall and heavier than the first one, 2003's "Liquid Sunshine."

Here's a few of their better songs:

Dust Bolt- Mass Confusion
Nervosa- Downfall of Mankind

Anthrax-442

Since meeting my wife, I've enjoyed discovering bands from her home-country of Slovakia and that general region.  My favorite is a band called Sexit (which I've posted about on here before).  Their first album is classic heavy metal a la Maiden, etc. but with their subsequent albums they went in a rock direction though quite diverse and eclectic.  Their lyrics are all in Slovak but they're clean and actually some have Christian themes.  Here's their first album:



And here are a few others from later albums:







I'll think of a few other bands and post later. 

Kerrick wrote:Their first album is classic heavy metal a la Maiden, etc. but with their subsequent albums they went in a rock direction though quite diverse and eclectic.  

After sampling the tracks, I will say they made a smart move to the rock side of things.  
The overall song-writing is better and the music better highlights the talents of the singer(s).

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O.K., I got a ton of these obscure favorites, but I will get on with the next 2:

1.  Liege Lord- Freedom's Rise  (1985)

Their 1st album and my favorite of theirs.   However, no one really talks about this one.
Instead, the accolades all go to their 3rd album "Master Control."
"Master Control" has a different singer and is closer to Metal Church
or Vicious Rumors VS. the more melodic and Maiden-inspired "Freedom's Rise."

Very underrated album and band. I had a fanzine back in the 80's, and used to correspond with Matt Vinci (bass player).
Very friendly guy, and he would send me their demo stuff to review. They were also great live, but I did not find that out
until I recently saw their early shows on You Tube...!








2.  Dark Age - E.P.  (1984)

Similar in some ways to early Liege Lord, Dark Age was an L.A. based obscurity that released one E.P. 
before vanishing.  Like Liege Lord, they also employed Dungeons & Dragons and sword and sorcery
imagery, as well as raided the Maiden catalog as well as that of other NWOBHM bands like Judas Priest and Tygers.
The production (by Randy Burns!) is a bit rough but likely more because of budget constraints.   
In any case, this one isn't perfect but has some charm to it and calls to mind other USPM classics released in that same year by the likes of Omen, Griffin, Jag Panzer, Helstar, Cirith Ungol, and Fates Warning.

Dormant - Consolamentum is a fantastic and obscure Christian black metal EP. It definitely makes it into my top five black metal albums of all time.

Ten 33 is a really good Christian old school hardcore band that put out two albums (Emergency! Emergency! and Nightmare on Grace Street) a while ago. I don't really know their level of popularity though.

VIXIVI (Sweet Kiss and Faraway Dreams, Death Circus), Vaande (Naade), and Bleedience (s/t) are great Norwegian unblack metal bands that have been defunct for some time now. Their stuff is hard to find but it is good music.

Jeff Arwadi, one of the guys from Kekal, had another project called Excision which was kinda experimental death metal. Really good music there too.

There was an old Christian black/death band from the US called Neverdead that released a couple of demos. The songs are all on YouTube. Kinda thrashy also in a way.

^I checked some of those out.
Pretty obscure, not on Spotify and not much written about them.
I also found a nice track on YT by a band called Vikarbyrgi which you might like.
They are now known as Hesychast.

Oh yeah I remember Vikarbyrgi. I have one of the compilations on which they appear. Hesychast's album is great but I have to be in the right mood for it.

Christian band this time, from the Netherlands.

This 2018 E.P. barely registered barely a blip of interest, even on the CMR board. 

I think it's great old-school NWOBHM, like a more melodic version of a Priest / Maiden mash-up, with a little Helloween thrown in.

I confess to really liking this album.  Yes, the cover art is hideous and awful.  It's old school German power / speed metal bordering on thrash at times.   The music has a vibe to it that was unique to that time period and that country.   

The band members eventually formed Secrecy, a band that was slightly less obscure and released a few albums.  
But this was the only Sweet Cheater album (not to be confused with the hair metal band of the same name).

I'm willing to bet that no one here has heard of this album before, but may have heard of Secrecy.

Falconer - Grime vs Grandeur (I know people can't stand the different vocals but I really love this album.)

Impellitteri - Pedal to the Metal (This one got/gets all kind of grief. I love it! Some of Chris' best work is on this.)

That's my favorite Falconer and I greatly enjoy that Imp album.

Hall Aflame. A Kurt Vanderhoof band that was bluesy hard rock. I really enjoy their album.

Speaking of Metal Church, I’ll say Generation Nothing. I loved that album when it came out and then discovered that it had a lukewarm reception at best.

I like it, not a favorite but good.

hey bro, A band called Metallica had an album called Enter Sandman that was released back in 1991. Kind of went under the radar. I think it was their only release, but people call me a poser for some reason when I say that. Kind of like when AC/DC came out with Metal Health with Jason on the cover. That was a good one too.

Schizophonic by Nuno Bettencourt

There are quite a few - I have a habit of liking albums and bands others usually do not...LOL

Dream Theater - When Dream And Day Unite (1989)
Extreme - Waiting For The Punchline (1995)
Kinetic Dissent - I Will Fight No More Forever (1991)
Mark Boals - Ring Of Fire (2000)
Onslaught - In Search Of Sanity (1989)
Onward - Evermoving (2001)
Prototype - Trinity (2002)
Quartz - Quartz (1977)
Reclusion - Shell Of Pain (2001)
Rosicrucian - No Cause For Celebration (1994)
Royal Hunt - Land Of Broken Hearts (1992)
Royal Hunt - Clown In The Mirror (1994)
Silver Mountain - Shakin' Brains (1983)
Silver Mountain - Universe (1985)
Silver Mountain - Roses & Champagne (1988)
Symphony X - Symphony X (1994)
Talk Show - Talk Show (1997)
Van Halen - Van Halen III (1998)
Wrathchild America - 3-D (1991)

I'm sure there are more, but this list will have to do for now...

Bahana wrote:Schizophonic by Nuno Bettencourt

ooooh good one!

I used to spin that one quite a bit back in the day!

Royal Hunt is good, pretty well known amongst power/prog fans.

Judas Priest-The Turbo and Jugulator albums. Turbo is a fun 80s party rock album (though it's good that it was a one-off) and Jugulator is a total metal assault, and Ripper fit into the band well. Yet, both albums mostly got negative reviews.

Turbo>British Steel

Pethead wrote:Turbo>British Steel

And on that note, Jugulator>Angel of Retribution and Nostradamus (or as I called it, Mostlydullus   ).

Jugulator is a great album, wish they'd put it on Spotify but no way is Turbo better than British Steel.  Get help.

British Steel has, what, 2 good riffs and maybe 3 good hooks?

Breaking the Law, Living after Midnight, Steeler and Metal Gods are better than anything on Turbo.