This installment, the report of my haul of digital audible delights will have to be split into two parts.
Initially I thought this was going to be a pretty bad day, as I found a few things, but nothing super. I was also totally dejected that I traveled to a out-of-the-way store about an hour away and didn't find a single stinking CD to buy! I can't even remember the last time that occurred at that particular place, if ever.
Things ended happily, though. I got to the final store of the day quite late, but ended up buying over 50 CDs (not the maximum I've bought by far, mind you). So ultimately I felt quite vindicated.
This first part will be what I found everywhere else, and the second part will cover that last store.
First store I found anything at had a couple of things. Nothing particularly great, but since on average I only find 2-3 discs there at a time, it was a pretty decent amount of discs:
Allura - A Change in the Winds - $1.00
2007 mini-CD. By the looks of it, this was obviously some sort of hardcore/metalcore release. Since the bassist and guitarists were all longhairs, I figured it would probably be somewhat metallic, so I went ahead and took a chance for a buck. Not a great decision. This started out as the primarily hardcore, breakdown-laden, dual-harsh-vocalled stuff I was expecting. What I had not expected was the band making frequent shifts into a melodic, overtly commercial MTV-friendly emo style with vocals to match (I listed to some online samples of the band's later full-length, and it's almost totally in this style. Some may argue that's a slight improvement from ultra-forced hardcore, but I'm equally disinterested by both). I'm sure one of these guys listened to a metal album once upon a time and if you dissected the guitar parts thoroughly, there would be instances having some semblance to melodic death metal bands. As a whole, nothing of redeeming musical value here for me, though. Blech.
Dance Club Massacre - Feast of the Blood Monsters - $1.00
This had a Metal Blade logo, how could I resist? Another one of those spastic technical bands with a cutesy name and cutesy songtitles. Mostly sounded like hyperactive death/grind to me, but with lots of time changes, some sparingly used keyboards and effects, and those awful forced HC-attempt-at-black-metal vocals. The intro to "Murders Come with Smiles" (also reprised near the end of the song) is in the vein of classic horror scores/themes and struck me as the only memorable thing about the album.
Defleshed - Death... The High Cost of Living - $1.00
I usually get unnaturally excited when I find later (late '90s and later) Pavement/Crash releases locally...They don't show up all that often, which is frustrating since they're so prevalent online--for a buck or two they're great as collection filler, but face it, when you tack on another $3 or so for shipping, most of the releases aren't worth it. Anyway, this is a live EP with 2 tracks from their first album and 5 from Under the Blade. Sound quality is good but the drums are too high in the mix. This is a good live representation of their later style--fast and energetic death/thrash, albeit a bit monotonous. For trade.
Fireball Ministry - FMEP - $1.00
I thought I recognized the bandname (turns out I did) but I wasn't sure if this was the '70s influenced band I was thinking of, mainstream retro-rock ala The Darkness, or more commercial stoner rock like Fu Manchu or Monster Magnet. It's a moot point since I bought it anyway, but I should have just looked at the tracklisting, as seeing "Victim of Changes" would have immediately compelled me to buy it. There are three originals here, covers of Alice Cooper and Judas Priest, and three additional bonus Blue Cheer/Misfits/Aerosmith covers taken from tribute albums I had never heard of before. I found the originals to be disappointing, as they're essentially hard rock with some doomy influence from early Sabbath...Not sufficiently heavy, sufficiently raw/freewheeling (see Nashville Pussy), or sufficiently '70s inspired to really grab me. The covers are the most interesting part of the EP--I'd say the best of the bunch is Blue Cheer's "Fortunes," which is the most faithful to the original. The Priest cover ("Victim of Changes," as mentioned before) is surprisingly well done and they give it a doomy vibe, but the vocals just don't cut it by the end of the song. I don't just mean that infamous final high note either--the vocals are pretty monotonous and there's no attempt to show any additional emotion during the last couple of lines. Finally, I want to add that the cover is a quite blatant adaptation of Caspar David Friedrich's Klosterfriedhof im Schnee (can be seen on the covers of Mythic's EP and the Goddified/Goddefied mCD) but it doesn't get a mention anywhere. Kinda assholish.
I assumed this was going to be some sort of metalcore. Saw there was a Behemoth shirt in the band photo (not that that's a mark of quality these days...), so I went ahead and bought it. The first song has some melodic twin guitarwork, but overall sounds mostly like modern death metal with breakdowns incorporated. For deathcore, the vocals are thankfully more like standard DM vox and aren't very forced or overexaggerated for the style. The other tracks have a stronger melodeath influence and sound like typical Slaughter of the Soul-core mixed with the sound of the first track.
Styx - Edge of the Century - $1.00
This was the result after the band reformed for the first time. I was just looking through the booklet to check the condition was okay, and I didn't realize Tommy Shaw didn't play on this one! Crazy stuff. But this is only trade fodder--I'm not even going to listen to it. Ha! For trade.
Terminal Choice - New Born Enemies - $1.00
Electronic rock. Chris Pohl's (Blutengel/Seelenkrank) band. Trade fodder.
Van Halen - Van Halen - $1.00
A nice looking copy for trade fodder. Certainly influential and a very good for what it is--a rock album. I can't help but scoff at anyone who calls this full-on heavy metal--the culprits are usually old-timers and regular rock fans who want to beef up their musical taste without having to sully their ears with actual metal. Have successfully traded through a couple copies of this already, and I don't like the album enough to be concerned about holding on to it at all. For trade.
Second-farthest store only yielded one disc (which I already had, no less), and by then I assumed that would be the day's best find:
Megadeth - So Far, So Good...So What! - $2.00
One I already have, but it was a nice-looking copy of the original unremastered version and the price was right. This album never really resonated with me at all. I'm not even a particularly big Megadeth fan, but this seems so lackluster compared to all of their other old material. Only two things I really like here. The cover of "Anarchy in the U.K." is great, and the way Dave venomously sings the "as long as there's a P.M.R.C." lines in "Hook in Mouth" is very striking (I'm not even into the song as a whole that much, although it's probably one of the better originals on the album). Certainly my least favorite of the Megadeth albums up to Countdown... (possibly Youthanasia too, depending on my mood).
However, there was more to be had...
No comments:
Post a Comment