Nice songs on those two bands as well! I don't really follow them closely though :P
I was introduced to Iron Maiden by a friend of mine. The first Maiden song he showed me was Aces High. I was like "this is nice". Then The Trooper ("Wow"). Then Fear of the Dark ("Damn!"). Then The Number of the Beast, and I was sold. Immediately made it a goal to listen to as many songs of theirs as possible.
The latest album is really nice I think - It still has some of the (kind of) proggy approach they've been doing in the last few albums, but you can still make out those classic Maiden riffs and melodies. Death or Glory, When the River Runs Deep and Speed of Light are the ones most reminiscent of their older stuff I think, and Tears of a Clown has a slower, kind of a rock approach. The title track is nice, the opener is quite heavy, The Red and the Black is classic Harris songwriting, and Empire of the Clouds is Dickinson's magnum opus no doubt. Such a great song.
I agree! Pop seems so... synthetic and unnatural sometimes. In rock and metal shows, people seem so more connected to the music and the band members, the interaction seems to be much better and more heartfelt. They actually know the band, they know the lyrics instead of only a couple of the words in the chorus, they identfy so much more with what's going on. In Opeth live shows you have Mikael cracking jokes all the time. I feel like rockheads and metalheads have so much more in common between them, and that helps a lot.
I've never owned a PlayStation in my life :( Was never too interested in trying to emulate it on the computer. I guess the PC games themselves got me hooked enough hehe! Was never much of a console person (there were limitations I couldn't control too), I can't even remember where my good ol' GBA is.
Was never much on Serebii honestly. Never really looked like a comfortable place but that may just be me being used to PC :3