Forever Mourne - The Burning Silence of Eternity (2006)

Cost: $2.00

I was expecting generic US black metal (and to a large extent I got it), but what's disappointing is that this CD could have been better.  Since the band is now defunct it's pointless to dwell too much on wasted potential.  The major problem is that in every song, the band keeps reverting back to a generic '90s Nordic BM sound...In a lot of cases the song will open with a solid mid-paced riff or they'll have a decent one somewhere, but without fail things eventually speed up and become uninteresting.  

 

That's compounded with another problem--the songs here are way, way too long.  Apart from the intro, the shortest song is over 6 minutes, and there's nothing displayed here that justifies trying to fill out that time.  They cycle through different riffs, sure, but there are no real attempts to break up the monotomy other than a couple of atmospheric clean guitar sections.  Speaking of guitars, I should say that when they choose to show it off, the guitarwork seems a cut above the average black metal band.  There are some sparingly used harmonized dual guitar parts, and there are real guitar solos (the long progressive-ish one in "Nothing Heaven" is actually very good).  Bits like that are unexpected, but ultimately they don't help the album all that much.

HavocHate - This Violent Earth (2003)

Cost: $1.00

Modern thrash.  Half of the mixture is in a similar vein to the newer material of thrash veterans--I'm specifically thinking Testament, Overkill, and Exodus...Unfortunately the other half is the dreaded chugga chugga Pantera stuff.  I was expecting a lot worse based on his appearance, but even with his relatively modern style of vocals the singer avoids ultra-forced or barking vocals.

The Accüsed - The Curse of Martha Splatterhead (2009)

This CD is available for trade.

I'm neutral about The Accüsed...I don't dislike them and I appreciate a good deal of their stuff, but in terms of crossover, I mostly prefer the more metallic kind, ala Wehrmacht and Cryptic Slaughter.

Tommy Niemeyer is now the only member remaining from the band's classic period.  Stylistically, there's been no change, so this is much better than I expected, but on the other hand, there's a certain feeling missing.  It's most obvious in the vocals...In a general sense of being raspy, they aren't too different from Blaine Cook's in their delivery, but the the craziness and overt punk snottiness is missing, which contributed a lot to the old sound.  I gravitate towards the faster songs, but it seems nothing is quite pushed to an over-the-top level, and having crazy, spazzy vocals would certainly help towards accomplishing that.

Lack of Faith - Aeternus Caligatio (2003)

Cost: $1.00

Band name and album title initially attract me to this one.  Layout reeks of modernity, so I look through the booklet.  The thanks list is all over the place--one fellow has Korn, Fear Factory, and Queensryche in his, while another mentions Sabbath and Yngwie.  But hey, it's a buck, so I decide to risk it.

Modern heavy metal here, midpaced-to-slow in tempo.  While there a few classic metal elements under the surface, it's hardly traditional metal, and it's clear that they unfortunately took some influence from Pantera (well, later Pantera ;) ) and bands of that ilk musically--there are plenty of chugga-chugga riffs and the guitars have that modern chunky, churning feel.  The first two songs seem to suffer from that the most.  I did like the doomy Sabbath-inspired "The Pain Remains," which is in a similar vein to Candlemass' immediate post-Messiah material.

Three of the guys are ex-members of later Steel Attack lineups (Ronny Hemlin is probably the best known as he's the current Tad Morose singer).  The vocals are the strongest point, with Ronny's delivery and tonality reminding me very much of a Swedish version of Ripper Owens--the majority of the vocals follow in the footsteps of classic metal singers, but like Ripper, there are a few spots of more angsty modern vocals, presumably to fit with the modern style of the music.   

Planks - The Darkest of Grays/Solicit to Fall (2011)

Cost: $1.99

I must mention metal-archives' choice of genre for the band, since I was unfamiliar with them and that's immediately where I went to look for information: "Blackened Sludge/Post-Metal."  Surprisingly, for the first real song after the intro track, that descriptor is pretty apt.  There are fast sections in the song which riff-wise and stylistically are total black metal, but there's an unusual thickness to the sound, particularly the guitars, that is unusual.  So it does indeed sound like a more sludge or doom-inclined band playing black metal.  If nothing else, I can say that it was rather different, and wouldn't have minded an album full of such material.

However, the black metal influence tapers off immediately after the first track, and by the time you get to the disc's last four tracks, the "Solicit to Fall" EP, there's none.  So the majority of the disc is that post-metal stuff which mixes together a lot of elements, primarily sludge and hardcore here.  I see these kinds of projects and even this CD specifically get all sorts of accolades for transcending genres and such nonsense, but I find it to be lowest common denominator music.  The overall heaviness is pleasing, sure, and there are occasional bleak riffs, but that's to be expected from bands that draw their influences from so many styles.  There are bits and parts that are alright, but I found it forgettable as a whole.  On a positive note I will say many bands who attempt similar things use HC-style vocals (which I absolutely hate), and Planks does not.  They're a hoarse roar, reminding me of death'n'roll style vox.

Black Night: Deep Purple Tribute According to New York (1997)

Cost: $1.00

This isn't quite metal, but it was one of the only interesting things in the dollar bin at the time, so it will have to do.  First of all, let me say I don't take sides in the debate on whether it's better for bands to stay as true to the originals as possible when doing tributes/covers or whether they should reinterpret songs as they see fit.  I've seen exceptional and terrible examples of both, so I'm all for whatever sounds good. 

I suppose this would be classified as a novelty tribute album, although it's not as bad as all the lullaby/hip hop/piano/string quartet/banjo-rendition tributes coming out nowadays.  The premise is that this is supposed to be a "New York style" tribute to Deep Purple, which means the covers have varying amounts of funk and blues influence injected into them.  This was all put together by T.M. Stevens, who is black and dreadlocked and famous for several high-profile bass playing gigs but whom I also had to look up.   I'm not going to mention all of the musicians involved here (a high caliber group, I won't deny, but admittedly a number of them are completely outside of metal/hard rock circles), but I've listed the vocalists for each cover below, and the bulk of the guitars across the tribute are handled by Al Pitrelli, Vinnie Moore, and Richie Kotzen.

In most cases the tribute was better than I expected, but not quite interesting enough where I can realistically say I'd want to listen to it again:

1. Black Night (Joe Lynn Turner vox)
Bluesy version with a significantly slowed tempo.  Of the three Joe Lynn Turner tracks on here, this is the most altered from the original (and is worse off because of it).  The guitar tone makes it one of the heaviest songs on the tribute along with "Burn," but that still doesn't help much.

2. Strange Kind of Woman (Richie Kotzen vox)
Blues-funk version, better suited to this kind of interpretation than some of the other songs.

3. Fireball (Corey Glover vox)
This switches off between slowed down funk sections for the verses, and then the chorus parts are played relatively straight.  There's even an attempt at a Gillan scream at the end, but it doesn't work for me.

4. Smoke on the Water (Richie Kotzen vox)
Other than the funk bass, really not tampered with all that much (I think even the dumbest musical moron knows not to mess with that iconic riff).  My main gripe is the vocals--Kotzen oversings in an attempt to sound soulful...I think it would have been much better with JLT on vocals.  But even worse, for some reason T.M. Stevens felt the need to throw in some idiotic rap-style shout-outs at the end.

5. Child in Time (Tony Harnell vox)
This starts off as a seemingly straightforward cover with mundane vocals (Tony isn't a bad singer, but the singing seems quite uninspired)...Suddenly, after "...wait for the ricochet," things go reggae.  Seriously.  Since a large chunk of the song is vocal-less anyway, there's a fun jam session vibe to most of the cover.

6. Woman from Tokyo (Richie Kotzen/T.M. Stevens/Joe Lynn Turner/Tony Harnell vox)
There's some funk in the sound, most notably in the bass, but relatively straightforward, with everyone trading off on vocals.  Pretty good.

7. Space Truckin' (Tony Harnell/T.M. Stevens vox)
Why can't Mr. Stevens just shut up and stick to playing the bass?  Other than his annoying vocal interjections, unremarkable to me.

8. Stormbringer (Joe Lynn Turner vox)
Probably the least tinkered with tune, but it's missing the wonderful '70s feeling of the original due to the different guitar tone and the lack of harmonized vocals.

9. Speed King (Joe Lynn Turner vox)
Stays pretty true to the original, with some funky basswork added to the solo break.  Solid cover.

10. Burn (Corey Glover vox)
The best is saved for last...Follows the same template as "Fireball," with slowed down funky choruses, but this is infinitely better.  I really wish this had been done as a  regular cover, as aside from the funk sections it's an awesome rendition.  Oh yeah, stellar guitarwork here, courtesy of Yngwie.

11. Deep Purple NY
Throwaway track of shout-outs to some of the musicians who played on the album.

Apotheosys - The Fall and the Triumph (2005)

Furious black/death, predominantly black.  It's done well for what it is, but I thought the chaos and speed of their overall style overshadowed the songs themselves, which don't really stand out individually.  The vocals remind me quite a bit of Battles in the North-era Abbath.

Praetorian - Prophecies of Chaos (2012)

I'm a bit surprised how obscure this is for such a recent release...They--well, this Praetorian, at least--don't have a metal-archives page, and I could find very little info on the band online other than a couple of live vids.  Not that it really matters, since the logo and album title alone were enough to get me to grab this.  Semi-technical death metal of the "not bad enough to be awful, not good enough to be overly impressive" sort. Initially during the first song I though this would be more straightforward and '90s influenced death, but small technical flourishes and more modern style groovy riffs show up as the album progresses.  The only other commentary I really have to make concerns the vocals...The singer's screechy secondary vocals come off as overexaggerated black metal vocals...There are many other bands guilty of doing them to much more ridiculous degrees, but I wish he had just used the typical death metal low vox everywhere.