I am going to dedicate this topic to the obscure, forgotten gems of 80's style traditional heavy, speed or power metal. Anybody who wishes to discuss it are welcome to discuss it here. What this topic is for is introducing other people to the gems of these genres that they should own but probably haven't heard about. Samples are much appreciated, since simple namedropping will probably NOT make a lot of people check out the bands you mentioned. If there are no samples on youtube, or anywhere else, at least include some sort of description of the sound.

To start the thread, I am going to showcase some of my personal favourites. Some of these might be quite famous in their home countries, but they are practically unheard of outside of them.

The first band I am going to showcase is one of my peronal favourites: Aria from Russia.



This is really some excellent fucking heavy metal, sung in their mother toungue. People have called them a "Russian Iron Maiden" and some such, and to a certain extent this might apply, but it's not completely true either, since they have a very unique sound. IMO especially the debut album is excellent. I have also been told that the debut (Megalomania) was in fact the first metal album released in the Soviet Union, but since I have little knowledge of the early Russian underground scene, I cannot really comment on the authenticity of this statement. I know it predates Kruiz' metal releases (also fucking excellent speed metal) and Korrozia Metalla's releases (band used to be good thrash, but sucks now). Read reviews and listen to Aria:

http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=272
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U49yIOkFOlA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBeOx9VPjf4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZGpiOI-Siw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YdxEwNRawE

The second band I am going to showcase is Mindless Sinner from my own home country, Sweden.



This is some excellent rocking heavy metal part of what is sometimes referred to as the first wave of Swedish heavy metal (lots of great bands to be found, like Heavy Load, Axewitch, Hiroshima and so on). Really great riffs in a quite melodic but still riff driven 80's heavy metal style. Listen and read reviews:

http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=23990
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-OHTFzVwOw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCCDsqPWcto

The next band would be something that apparently a lot of South Americans have heard of, being the original band of a certain Paul Gillman (later in the band/solo project Gillman), being Arkangel from Venezuela.



This is a really good heavy metal band. MA labels them as Speed/Power, which is something I do not really understand, since to me, it is straight up heavy metal. It sounds a bit like Riot from the States sometimes, and there's a lot of Priest in there, but they also have this special vibe that's a bit hard to describe. Lyrics are in Spanish, but when it's this good, it doesn't matter if you can't understand a word they are saying. MA page (only one review for one album) and youtube links:

http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=2003
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaqUq1tKadg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EBGfbYEXqM

And finally in this opening post, I am going to showcase a speed metal band from Canada, being Assault from Vancouver.



This band which released only one album of completely awesome speed metal packed with great riffs might be somewhat heard of in Canada (I don't know really) or some Annihilator fans might know of them perhaps simply because of their ties to said band. This one album they released though,is something that should be a classic, And I'm nearly willing to bet that this band would have been huge had they continued. Right now the album is apparently quite rare, and this band is all but forgotten by most metalheads, which is a real shame.

http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=1925
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W90iWhpfFXI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fxDojhT_i0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4w758JKif2s

All for now then. More to come later and please contribute with your own additions.