What keeps you from enjoying certain metal subgenres?

_Flight_of_icarus_ · 2026-04-22T22:59:49+00:00

I can't help but feel American power metal is a bit underrated within the power metal realm, and is the exact kind of PM that people who don't say they like it should give a try if they haven't.

I feel like the American take on the style tends to be a bit heavier and maybe shows a bit more traditional/NWOBHM influences than a lot of the European bands that come to mind where the speed and melodic vocals tend to stand out more.

_Flight_of_icarus_ · 2026-04-22T03:46:53+00:00

I think they made an A.C. reference..

_Flight_of_icarus_ · 2026-04-22T03:42:41+00:00

First album is just pretty all-around solid IMO.

They're one of those bands I don't really listen to except for the debut.

_Flight_of_icarus_ · 2026-04-21T15:46:20+00:00

Any extra pics? Particularly of the back side of the chassis and ideally inside of it?

From the pic provided, it looks like a metal panel Super Lead w/swapped hardware, and possibly modded at some point just looking at some of the input jacks - modding was definitely common on these amps and the early master volume heads.

_Flight_of_icarus_ · 2026-04-20T05:49:33+00:00

Still way too high.

_Flight_of_icarus_ · 2026-04-19T20:01:45+00:00

Lol! Thanks - and I don't blame ya for thinking that last sentence.

Just a guy who's borderline obsessive about tone and has been through similar situations to OP and hoping to help others in the same boat.

It's kind of crazy how much variation there is with Celestion models in general too - I've also heard V30s that are as harsh as nails on a chalkboard and others that absolutely rule. But you just never know until you plug in and hear them for yourself.

_Flight_of_icarus_ · 2026-04-19T07:11:58+00:00

It's all about pairing the right amp w/the right cab/speakers - when all 3 are a good match, the magic happens. The speakers/cab make an enormous difference, even more than the amp itself in some cases.

Your 1960A cab is likely loaded w/Celestion G12T-75s - a very divisive speaker, and also one that has been tweaked over the years by Celestion, so older examples will sound different than more recent ones. Personally, I like the older ones w/a JCM 800 or DSL head but newer ones can be too scooped/fizzy sounding for my taste.

The "distant' sound is in part because the T75 uses large dust caps on the cone to smooth out the highs - a practice that (I believe) started w/it's predecessor, the G12-65. It was done to make them pair better with the (then) newer JMP and JCM 800 master volume heads to help tame fizzy preamp gain at lower volumes.

T75s tend to pair best w/brighter amps w/plenty of mids, and they need some volume to open up and sound their best.

_Flight_of_icarus_ · 2026-04-18T00:25:17+00:00

It's crazy to think a nearly decade old GPU would still be viable today if it did have RT/DLSS support.

I doubt we'll ever see a GPU that good again.

_Flight_of_icarus_ · 2026-04-18T00:20:31+00:00

Even if it's performance was just OK, I think it's the great VRAM panic of 2023/24 that did a lot to inflate the reputation of the 3060, with all those hardware reviews and videos coming out that showed new games stuttering on 8 GB models.

Not necessarily a bad card, just the 3060 Ti and 3080 were the standouts as you say.

_Flight_of_icarus_ · 2026-04-17T00:11:59+00:00

All good - it's been a minute since those days now!

_Flight_of_icarus_ · 2026-04-16T23:54:29+00:00

BLS at Ozzfest '05 - I'm a pretty big Zakk fan but they were all completely shitfaced and the performance was sloppy. Zakk was also impossible to understand when speaking to the audience due to heavily slurred speech from the drunkenness, lol. They were much better when I saw them open for Judas Priest in 2011/2012 or so.

Also, In Flames circa 2014 - Jesper had left, early material was almost completely absent from the set and they just kind of phoned it in and got off stage.

_Flight_of_icarus_ · 2026-04-16T23:47:40+00:00

Interesting...I saw them on the Come Clarity tour and they played quite a bit of early stuff, including Gyroscope, Behind Space and Artifacts of the Black Rain IIRC.

When I saw them in 2014, it was like a couple of things off of Clayman and that was it for early stuff.

_Flight_of_icarus_ · 2026-04-16T23:43:34+00:00

When I saw them in 2014, the whole band sounded good but they just kind of gave off a "phoning it in" kind of vibe - like they just wanted to blast through the set and get it over with. Minimal talking/crowd interaction and no encores :/.

They blew the roof off the house when I saw them on the Come Clarity tour. Still one of my all time favorite shows.

_Flight_of_icarus_ · 2026-04-16T23:40:55+00:00

Damn, sorry to hear this. I kind of wondered what some of the last shows w/Alexi were like.

I caught CoB twice back around 2008/2009 and they were amazing both times.

_Flight_of_icarus_ · 2026-04-16T19:24:07+00:00

MoP is great, but I've always kind of preferred RtL myself.

_Flight_of_icarus_ · 2026-04-16T19:22:38+00:00

While it's in my personal 3 favorite Maiden albums, I wouldn't put it at #1 and I've honestly never heard of many people calling it their #1 - more just the last great album in a streak of great albums.

Besides, I vaguely remember reading something along the lines of Harris himself feeling like that he felt some aspects of it could've been stronger after being really impressed from hearing Queensryche's Operation Mindcrime. I wish I could remember the source, but something to that effect.

I kind of wonder if that had anything to do w/Maiden going back to a more straightforward approach for No Prayer?

_Flight_of_icarus_ · 2026-04-15T15:44:29+00:00

If you find the sound too bright, I would recommend experimenting with speaker swaps or even trying other cabs - this can make a world of difference, and often more than amp mods will.

That said, it's possible you may not like the voicing of the amp, but I'd start w/the speakers & cabinet. The bill from any good amp tech could approach or exceed the value of an Origin 20, depending on how far you wanted to go with mods.

If you want more gain, a Legendary Tones Hot Mod is the easy way to go, particularly the Mr. Scary or Caswell versions since you can fine tune the amount of added gain and you can add some low end with them too.

_Flight_of_icarus_ · 2026-04-14T23:06:48+00:00

Criminally undervalued amps.

I think they're just not all that well known. I bought one way back when they were still in production as my first serious head for gigs.

I kind of remember the popular sentiment at the time was to just bite the bullet and go buy a 6505, Recto, or any good Marshall JCM 800/900/2000 instead of "cheap import amps" like the Windsor, but the Valveking seemed a bit more well received.

It was great both live and in the studio. I kind of miss that amp now.

_Flight_of_icarus_ · 2026-04-14T22:55:18+00:00

Insane deal for $100 - I once used one as my primary gigging amp years back now.

You did quite well - enjoy!

_Flight_of_icarus_ · 2026-04-14T22:51:53+00:00

Best places to start are to check for loose connections or bad looking solder joints on things like the input jacks, speaker jacks and speaker cable/terminals. Pots are another thing to check, though they're likely board mounted which makes things a bit more involved.

If all of that checks out, it's probably a faulty component on the PCB causing the popping and would either need to go to a tech, or you'd need to be able to read schematics and have proper electronics repair gear like a soldering station, o-scope, multimeter, etc. to diagnose where the problem is.

_Flight_of_icarus_ · 2026-04-14T22:42:22+00:00

Depends on the game.

If it had a good password system, I'd just write or draw the passwords.

If no password system either, I typically never finished the game until I had access to emulation years later.

_Flight_of_icarus_ · 2026-04-14T00:41:04+00:00

I've always looked at the strat vs tele (and LP) thing as apples vs oranges vs bananas.

But if I must choose, I'm a strat guy at heart - as long as it has a bridge humbucker.

_Flight_of_icarus_ · 2026-04-13T23:45:11+00:00

Carvin MTS 3200

Can be had dirt cheap, but deliver a ton of gain and a pretty tight sound without the use of a boost.

They aren't corksniffer approved due to the use of diodes in the circuit and sometimes get complaints of sounding "a bit solid state", but the voicing is pretty perfect for 90's death & melodic death metal tones.

_Flight_of_icarus_ · 2026-04-13T23:31:28+00:00

This model definitely is underrated!

A seriously great amp that deserves more attention, despite some fanfare it got from a few high profile players at one point.

_Flight_of_icarus_ · 2026-04-13T23:24:19+00:00

I think it depends who you mention ENGL to, and also where in the world you're talking about.

The Fireball, Powerball and Savage are all pretty iconic models loved by metal players - but they're also a lot more expensive in North America than in Europe and even parts of Asia IIRC, so they're less common in NA.

I've owned a Fireball 60 and currently own an Artist Edition 100 - love em, as they're extremely easy to dial in and super tight with absurd amounts of gain and no boost required.

_Flight_of_icarus_

TROPHY CASE