Jucifer - I Name You Destroyer (2002)

Cost: $1.00

Prior to getting this, I only had peripheral knowledge of Jucifer from when they were signed to Relapse, since there would be advertisements and articles in the catalogs and on the website.  Based on what I saw of the duo, I figured they would be some sort of avant-garde rock.  If you had asked me recently about them, I would have said they seemed like good candidates for being a Southern Lord signee (I mean that in the most negative way possible) based on the kinds of people geeks who seemed to like them.

This is an extremely varied album, and while there are heavier moments, it's not a metal album by any stretch.  It'd be easiest to classify this as indie rock, but when I say varied, I mean varied--plenty of pop, punk, and even folksy influences show up.  The first two tracks threw me a bit as it's not until the third track where heaviness creeps in with some Sabbath influences.  The chord pattern at the beginning of "Queen B" brought to mind Bathory's "Born for Burning," and the first half of the track seems like an attempt to approximate the sound of extreme metal by a band not in the genre.  It also introduces Amber Valentine's harsher screeching vocal style, which seems overly forced.  I much prefer her regular vocals and they work well here since the majority of the disc is rather mellow.  Any other metal?  Well, "Torch" is sludge/doom, and some of the other songs have Sabbathy riffs or brief bursts of extremity ("Fight Song" sounds like a '90s alternative song, but is punctuated with bursts of the harsher vocals I mentioned before).

Living Sacrifice - In Memoriam (2005)

Cost: $1.00

You'd hope the title would have been sincere and had some finality, but unfortunately these guys decided to reunite a couple years after this.  This is primarily a retrospective (don't make me laugh by calling it a best-of) with 3 new tracks and the '98 re-recording of "Enthroned" that was previously only available on a Solid State comp. added.  The tracks are thoughtfully presented in reverse chronological order, in case you want to pretend their career trajectory took a positive turn and had them progress from metalcore to death metal with those kinda odd Inhabit vocals and then on to Slayeresque thrash.

Steel Nation - Soul Swallower

Cost: $1.00

This CD is available for trade.

Band name and album title look like typical power metal, right?  Nope.  Hardcore here, though the band's name can be excused since they're from Pittsburgh.  Going in, I kinda figured this wouldn't be metal after reading the thanks list in-store, but I picked it up just in case.  Hey, it's just a dollar.  Like most modern hardcore, there is a metallic element to the music here, but I've never been able to get over the typical forced vocal style, present disc included.

A Dozen Furies - A Concept from Fire (2005)

Cost: $1.00

Metalcore.  I was fully expecting that based on the band name alone, though I mostly picked this up because of the Sanctuary logo on the back...They're not a label I associate with metalcore at all, so I was hoping there was a slight chance this was more prog. metal type stuff.  As is quite common in the genre, both the vocals and the music itself alternate between being extreme and being more accessible/commercial.  I do hear a lot of melodic death metal influence in the twin guitars, which kind of puts them in the middle of the road in terms of extremity.  There are a lot more commercial-oriented bands in the genre out there, but by the same token, this is nowhere near as palatable for me as the bands who are playing what amounts to little more than midsguided Slaughter of the Soul worship, just with HC vox.  Although I don't particularly support the inclusion of bands like this on metal-archives, they were apparently once listed but eventually removed, which I found a little surprising considering some of the metalcore bands that remain listed there.  And ultimately, that's the only positive thing I can say about these guys (aside from their HIV test results).  There are bands that are far worse.

Oct./Nov./Dec. 2012 finds

No store breakdowns or introductory paragraph (obviously because I didn't keep close track), so we'll jump right into things:

Arch Enemy - Dead Eyes See No Future - $1.99
Title track, 3 live 2004 tracks, and 3 covers.  I'm no big fan of the first 3 Arch Enemy albums, so I won't pretend Angela Gossow is totally to blame for my disinterest in them.  I can think of worse extreme metal singers, but she's obviously in the band for novelty and sex appeal reasons rather than quality vocals.  The live tracks come off alright, although the overzealous stage banter before "We Will Rise" is straight from the Anselmo school of dumb aggression posturing.  Instrumentally, the Megadeth and Manowar covers are passable, if a bit simplified, but Angela's stilted vocals don't follow the song melodies and ruin them.  Musically the covers aren't that extreme, so the vocals come off as silly and overdone.  It's not saying much, but I thought the Carcass cover was the best thing on the EP--I'd take the real deal over this any day, but I'm sure Mr. Amott playing on the original song didn't hurt at all, and Angela does do a better job here of emulating the vocal style and timing than on the other covers.

Die Krupps - A Tribute to Metallica - $1.00
I hesitated on grabbing this, realizing I'd probably only listen to it once....But the disc was in excellent condition and it was extremely unlikely I'd ever see it cheaper, so the completist in me won out.  I wish these covers had been done as instrumental versions, as the weak vocals really detract from everything.  Still, the only song here that I truly found interesting beyond the novelty factor of the whole concept was Blackened.  It's not really that much better than those forgettable The Blackest Album tribute comps. that Cleopatra or whoever is putting out (they made it up to 4 volumes?!?!  Christ...)  So yes, as I type this moments later, I think that will probably be my only listen.  >:)

Head Trauma - Psychotic Episode - $2.40
Imagine a brutal death metal band playing '90s groove thrash songs.  The guitar sound and overall heaviness is definitely death metal, but the songs are full of groovy passages and start/stop riffing.  The vocals are of an aggro type but they're deep enough to bridge the stylistic differences here.  "Remember" is notable as it's a mellow instrumental (well, it's pretty much a bass solo with backing instrumentation at points) that reminded me slightly of Metallica (a less-progressive "Orion" at some points and a black album-style ballad at others).  I was also slightly surprised to find out midway through listening that the instrumentation is handled by Desmond Tolhurst of Mortician/Malignancy fame.  Interesting and very telling that I couldn't find any real reviews for this, only press sheet tripe which plays up Desmond's musical background or distro list descriptions that use adjectives to avoid specifically categorizing this.

Living Sacrifice - Reborn - $1.00
This album marked the change of the band's sound to modern metalcore garbage.  It's slightly better than the later albums since there are faint traces of the band's thrash roots here and there--the opening riff to the first track was quite furious and thrashy, and took me by surprise thinking there might be hope here...well, until the chugga chugga began a few seconds later.  "Something More" and "Liar" also stood out as being thrashier.  Since it was only a buck, I don't mind having bought this from a completist standpoint, but what I really want the bargain bins to deliver are the band's first three CDs!

Manowar - Into Glory Ride- $1.00
Cool to find this, but any excitement was somehwat dampened by the fact I've already owned it for years and years.  This is a solid album, and some individual tracks stand out as exemplary--"Warlord" is great, and "Revelation" is one of my favorite Manowar songs ever--but for me personally it was always greatly overshadowed by Hail to England.  Just take the more epic songs from the album--sure, "Secret of Steel" and "Valhalla" are okay, and "March for Revenge" is quite good at times, but for me they just don't hold up against "Battle Hymn" or "Bridge of Death" or "Guyana."


Nemesis - Eden? - $1.99
Guitar-driven progressive metal.  I'm kind of on the fence about how to further describe this, as it's usually too progressive to really call it power metal, but there are definite European power metal influences compared to say, Dream Theater and Fates Warning.  Pleasant to listen to, but not really my cup of tea, with one exception..."Faith" is an instrumental, very unlike the rest of the album but exactly the sort of thing I was looking for but not really finding when I would pick up less metallic shred/virtuoso albums (Satriani/Vai type stuff)...Tasteful but not overzealous guitarwork over dreamy background music.

Obituary - Anthology - $1.99
Compilation of stuff up to the Back from the Dead era.  There are two previously unreleased tracks at the end, one of which is an industrialized remix of "Boiling Point"...So the only reason to bother with this is the other unreleased track, which is a cover of Venom's "Buried Alive," recorded during the World Demise sessions.  Musically it's fine, but the vocals seem a tad restrained (to be fair, given that they were pretty thorough in recreating the intro, they may have not wanted to deviate from the original too much by having full-on deathy vocals).  Probably would have been better had it been recorded earlier.

The Secret - Solve Et Coagula - $1.00
Seeing the Southern Lord logo instantly made me think of doomy and/or avant-garde things, despite the goat on the cover.  This combines black metal (definitely the vocals, and most of the guitarwork), hardcore (not so much musically, but in some of the tempos--fear not, there are no breakdowns), and grind (during their speedier parts--while their songs are generally fast and short, there's not much outright blasting).  I should clarify that there's really no old school influence here, so they don't belong to the crop of bands mixing D-beat and black metal influences.  Nor does the grind element bring them anywhere near the Blasphemy/old Beherit sound.  I'm reminded of the band Infernal Stronghold in a way, not musically, but because both bands incorporate quite a lot of outside influences in their underlying sound, but still sound predominantly black metal.  Ironically, having mentioned Southern Lord and their doom associations, it should be mentioned three tracks ("Cross Builder," "Bell of Urgency," and the latter part of album ender "1968") are longer doomy/sludgy tunes.  They represent a minority of the material here but I find them to be more effective and less monotonous songs, so maybe they should have dumped the HC trappings and just done that style.  All in all, not great, not terrible.

Skid Row - Slave to the Grind - $1.00
This is one of the pressings where "Get the Fuck Out" was replaced with "Beggar's Day" (the shame is that "Get the Fuck Out" is actually a bit better).  For a long time I really didn't bother with the band and was only really familiar with them from MTV, so I thought the two big ballads from the first album were pretty representative of the band.  It's kind of surprising how heavy and gritty they can get, particularly the first two songs on this album.  That said, there are still commercial tendencies all over the place here.  Pure heavy metal this band was definitely not.

Testament - First Strike Still Deadly - $1.99
Re-recordings of old stuff, with Alex Skolnick back doing leadwork, and 2 songs with Zetro Souza on vocals.  These can't touch the originals, but I will say that this is one of the better "re-recorded classics" albums and in most cases I would happily choose this over listening to anything past the band's second album.  The only semi-miss here is "Alone in the Dark" due to Zetro's odd clean vox (keep in mind I thought the Legacy demo version was fine--he doesn't sound like that here).  Would have been nice if "Do or Die" or "Curse of the Legions of Death" were on here, but what can you do...  

Alastis - The Other Side (1997)

Cost: $1.99

The only other Alastis album I've heard in its entirety was the debut, although I was well aware they changed drastically from the early Samael sound, so this wasn't that big of a shock...Surprisingly, I didn't think this was all that bad, especially compared to the other '90s Century Media staple acts that underwent big stylistic changes.  It's competent dark metal.  Keys are used for some atmosphere but they're not terribly intrusive, and they don't really throw in any outside influences that make this a mutant musical hybrid.  It's definitely not as gothic as later Moonspell, Tiamat, or mid-era Rotting Christ, it doesn't have the non-metal influences of later Tiamat, and it doesn't have the electronic/industrial influence of later Samael.  Ironically, a lot of the material here brought Samael to mind (to coin a term I saw elsewhere, "Samael-lite"), even though this isn't really directly comparable to any era of Samael.  Stripping the black metal elements, budding electronic/industrial elements, and more pronounced vocals from Ceremony of Opposites and Rebellion era would be my best approximation.

Heavy, $1.99 at a time

Okay, to summarize the back story:
Franchise of stores had three locations here, once upon a time.
One of said locations closed several years ago.
Franchise just opened a new third store in a different location from the closed one.
I visit said franchise of stores a couple times.
I find a lot of metal for $1.99 throughout October 2012 at three locations of said franchise.
Am so happy, I don't really keep track of where I got what (receipts don't indicate CD title in most cases).
Have to write about said $1.99 finds in a combined, all-encompassing blog post.

While I find good stuff at all three locations most of the time, this haul was much better than usual, so particularly in the case of the new location I'm wondering if they brought in stock from somewhere else.  It's also extremely time-consuming as the clearance racks at each store are several yards long and filled with the typical R&B/alternative overstock detritus, classical/holiday comps., and lots of iffy metalcore.  Even more time was taken up because after I happened to find some metal DVDs, I was compelled to go through the clearance DVD section of each location more thoroughly than normal.  To her credit, The Sweet wanted to accompany me on every trip, although that's because the stores are strategically situated in plazas with plenty of female-friendly shopping and boutiques.

Arkaik - Reflections Within Dissonance
Technical death metal--not terrible, but suffers from a lack of memorability.  Since the songs are just whirlwinds of ever-changing riffs, nothing really stood out.

Blood Duster - Cunt
Reissue which adds a completely piss-take cover of Spectrum's "I'll Be Gone" as a bonus.  Some pretty funny stuff here, and the Impetigo cover is quite good.

Blood Duster - Fisting the Dead
Found this before Cunt. I'm usually not a huge fan of grindcore, but this was a cool find especially since it was still sealed (lid of the case was cracked though, which is why is probably ended up in the cheapo bin) and even had the obi-style information strip Relapse is so fond of.  This is the '08 reissue which has a '93 live show included along with the band's first 2 mCDs and the Tales of Ordinary Madness comp. tracks.  I like the tracks from the original Fisting the Dead mCD the best.  Oh yeah, two minor mistakes I want to point out...Track 50 is listed as "Simultaneous Pleasure Pinch" but it's actually "Anal Feast" and is even introduced that way.  Also, they cover Napalm Death's "Scum" during the live tracks, and it's listed on the tracklist correctly, but for some reason the back page of the booklet lists writing credits for "The Kill."

Bringers of Disease - Gospel of Pestilence
Digipak mCD of decidedly Nordic-sounding black metal from the US.  This brings to mind late '90s black metal, when bands were trying to emulate the golden age of the Norwegian scene in sound but could not quite get the substance--it's not bad, but it lacks the elements to propel it into the realm of the interesting or special.  I didn't particularly like it any better when they used more mid-paced tempos in the last song, so it's not a case of just being a monotonous speedy band, either.  Can't complain for $1.99 though, and the first track was worth that.

Broken Hope - Loathing
Wow, they got quite technical here.  Although their early stuff is representative of the then-current state of death metal, let's face it, these guys never rose above being a prominent second-tier band, and were usually  regarded as sort of a Midwest version of Cannibal Corpse (and rightfully so).  But for all their generic-ness, I find there's something more immediately likeable about the first two albums that just isn't here.  Jeremy Wagner's lyrics and lyrical themes are as brilliant as ever, though (just look at "He was Raped").  One thing I do appreciate  is that while other gore-themed DM bands were ham-fisted in their attempt to write brutal lyrics, Broken Hope lyrics were well-written and almost playfully articulate, which made the over-the-top scenarios they described even more hilarious.

Claustrofobia - I See Red
Modern death/thrash.  I assumed this was going to be straightforward thrash, so I was quite surprised at the amount of death metal influence in the music and vocals.  The cover of Sepultura's "Beneath the Remains" is well done.  Apparently some copies also have an Ultraje a Rigor cover, but my US pressing does not.

Corpus Christii - Rising
Let's summarize the thought process (which took around 3-4 seconds total) that went on here.  I see the name/title on the spine, and for a millisecond, think of the correct black metal band due to the immediate name association.  I obviously didn't pay attention to that all important extra "i" at the end, because I mentally dismiss the idea of finding one of their CDs locally as a farfetched notion.  So I figure it's probably the metalcore band Corpus Christi.  I pull it out, and the cover has no identifying information, just the stylized sun artwork and some Hebrew lettering--certainly occult-inspired, but that kind of imagery has been appropriated by some metalcore and avant-garde bands too.  I finally flip it over to see the familiar Portuguese band's logo.  This is the Candlelight version, which explains finding it there.  Their older stuff wasn't unpleasant but didn't leave much of an impression.  This album doesn't do much to change that opinion, although  "Untouchable Euphoria" and "Revealed Wounds" are pretty good.  Standard black metal fare.

Deeds of Flesh - Crown of Souls 

Disavowed - Stagnated Existence

Disgorge - Parallels of Infinite Torture

Divine Eve - Vengeful and Obstinate
Despite this post's title, I will confess this one was $2.50 and plucked from among the normally-priced used CDs.  No way I was leaving it there for that price.  After such a long hiatus, they're still doing the slow/mid-paced Frost worship wonderfully.  Initially I was a bit put off by the vocals on the first track, which seemed cleaner and weaker than on the old demo/mCD.  The vocals got raspier and sounded fine on the next two tracks, and then they reverted again on the last track, but seemed to fit better there.  "Whispers of Fire" is quite fast (particularly for Divine Eve) and black metal influenced--I thought it was the weakest song.  The Crimson Relic album had some faster stuff on it that worked, but here it sticks out badly.  I should also add that the occasional blast of the viking-style horns in the last song really gives off a great To Mega Therion vibe.

Early Man - Early Man
As you will no doubt see me mention constantly on this blog, there is something to be said for using tried and true/cliche elements in metal layouts.  Had I not already known the band, I probably would have passed over this or chosen to look it up at home before buying it.  This is their first release, a 3-track EP.  The first track is slightly thrashy heavy metal (the overall sound brings to mind a mellower, less thrashy "No Remorse") and is closest to the vein of their later stuff.  "Death is the Answer..." was quite a surprise...The vocals suddenly switched to a very nasal, slightly distorted, slightly warbly style, not unlike Zeeb Parkes.  The music itself is actually quite Witchfinder General-ish too, very doomy and filled with '70s Sabbath influence.  Last track is an early version of "The Undertaker is Calling You" that runs long because it's indexed as one track with the guitar intro--an early version of "Through Chemtrails," I presume (reminds me of the Halloween movie theme a bit before it segues into a more classical style guitar harmony).  The song itself has the slight thrash influence show up again in lieu of the Sabbath doominess, although they keep the Zeeb Parkes vocals so it ends up sounding like a heavier NWoBHM tune.  Nothing mind-blowing, but I found I enjoyed this a lot more than Beware the Circling Fin.

Embalmed - Exalt the Imperial Beast
Black/death metal of the relentless yet monotonous variety.  The vocals bring to mind older Mexican death metal, and I was initially reminded of the Demolition (US) vocals a bit.  At times this brings to mind a less guitar-focused and more drum-focused version of Blasphemy and all the war metal emulators, but this is even more one dimensional.  Don't get me wrong, I liked this at first, but there's just not enough variety here between songs--the CD is only 25 minutes and I thought that was a bit long.  Would have preferred to see 2 songs on a 7".  

Exciter - New Testament
Yes, one of those dreaded albums where old tracks are re-recorded.  What's a bit strange is they chose to re-record some tracks from the two albums prior to this that already had Jacques Bélanger on vocals, and these don't sound that much different from the originals.  Since John Ricci is the only original Exciter member left, Unveiling the Wicked and the self-titled album were skipped since he wasn't involved with those--ironically, those are the two albums that have the most room for improvement and that re-recording may have helped.  As for the other songs, we all know Bélanger isn't Beehler--he can belt out a decent falsetto, sure, but it's just not at the level of Dan's over the top wails.  The Heavy Metal Maniac material fares the worst here.  However, I thought "Violence and Force" and "Long Live the Loud" were pretty good.  There's no instance here where I like a re-recording better than one of the Dan Beehler-era originals, but this was better than I thought it would be.

Godless Rising - Battle Lords
The new (well, at the time) band of Jeff Gruslin and Paul Flynn from Vital Remains.  Unfortunately this falls short of recapturing the classis Let Us Pray sound, although I will say this comes closer than any subsequent Vital Remains album.

Horde of Hel - Blodskam
Primarily black metal, with some industrial/ambient/martial sections.  Rather than industrialized black metal like Helheim or Mysticum, think a standard black metal band with Puissance type interludes.  Some of the samples in particular create a very disconcerting atmosphere at times and the non-metal influences do help keep this from being monotonous.  The juxtaposition of styles was effective at creating an atmosphere, but this didn't stick with me after it ended.

Immersed - In the Ire of Creation
Semi-technical death metal.

Mortal Decay - Cadaver Art
The cover art is pretty good, although it definitely would fit better with a more technical DM band rather than Mortal Decay.  I'm somewhat amused there's actually a song called "Ruthlessly Scissored."  Is it evident I'm purposefully trying to sidestep discussing the actual music yet?

Nattefrost - Blood & Vomit
First, let's get it out of the way--while there are obviously some similarities at times, for the most part this isn't directly comparable to Carpathian Forest.  Stripped-down-to-basics black metal--fast, furious, and raw.  It's pretty simplistic, although not to the extent of say, a Von clone.  The music is fairly repetitive, although catchy enough to avoid being monotonous.  I was slightly disappointed because I was expecting this to be more old school, especially considering how such influences show up in Carpathian Forest.  Other than being straightforward in the way early black metal was, there's really no pre-'90s feeling here.  The Beherit cover ("The Gate of Nanna") is alright, but it's done as a typical black metal song...It lacks the hypnotic, strange feel of the original, and even makes me miss Holocausto's robotic sounding vox.  The first ambient half of the outro is well-done, and of course you get the requisite audio of Nattefrost vomiting and pissing.  Good for what it is.

Pagan's Mind - God's Equation
2CD version--still had the slipcase, sticker, and poster. Of course, the Japanese version has a bonus track that's not on the bonus disc.  Grumble grumble.

Sayyadina - The Great Northern Revisited
Knew nothing about this but picked it up since it was on Relapse.  That should have been the obvious hint.  Was expecting some sort of experimental or avant-garde black metal (based on the cover art and a couple of Swedish titles) or some sort of Dis-core (based on the other titles and sheer number of tracks).  Can't remember why I didn't just look through the booklet...My hands were full of other discs and/or I knew I would get it anyway, I guess.  Anyway, this is grindcore.  A discography compilation, in fact.

Severe Torture - Sworn Vengeance
This is the one of the supposedly "limited" versions with 2 bonus tracks in the form of Cro-Mags and Entombed covers.  Verdict on the covers: "It's the Limit" works pretty well as a death metal version...I somewhat dislike the vocals on the original, so even the death vox are something of an improvement.  "Eyemaster" isn't so bad where it's worthy of ridicule, but without that famous guitar tone, it pales in comparison to the original.

Skinless - Foreshadowing Our Demise

Summon - Fallen (CD w/ bonus DVD)
Never really got excited when these guys started mixing death metal into their sound and that stands for this album, too...Much preferred the black metal on the demo and 1st CD as well as the Masochist stuff.  They should have just gone total retro, as the best song here is "Loud as Hell, Fast as Fuck," which is just a short black/thrash number that's nothing like the rest of the album.  The DVD has Dolby Digital and surround sound mixes of the album and 3 videos.  Nice extra, but I doubt I'll touch it again.

Vader - More Vision and the Voice DVD
DVD re-release of the Vision and Voice video.  The majority of the content here is an '98 live gig, and there are some additional promo videos, bootleg live footage, and interview footage with Peter (definitely the most interesting part of the package) as bonuses.  Musically it's alright, although past Sothis I've never been terribly enthusiastic about Vader.  The '98 gig (filmed in a Kraków TV studio, I believe) seems extremely calculated and lacks spontaneity.  The band seems energetic with their playing and headbanging, but everything comes off as dull.  It's filmed in that way (I can't remember if it indicates high frame rate or low frame rate) where some of the footage seems slightly slowed down.  Stage lights flicker on and off.  As with a lot of Metal Mind video productions, constantly changing stage lighting is overused as a stage effect.  The front of the stage has a transparent section that can be underlit for additional effects (didn't Kat do that in some '80s performance vid?  I thought so but I couldn't find it.)  Mr. Shambo windmills crazily at times.  Yeah, that's about as exciting as it gets.

Valhall - Red Planet
The majority of the material here is vaguely psychedelic stoner doom, very heavily '70s influenced, but with a few interesting deviations here and there..."Rohypnol" is a short jazz interlude..."Mister Know-How" sounds quite uptempo and poppy especially due to the vocals..."Made in Iron" is a galloping tribute to you-know-who (with a main riff that sounds suspiciously similar to "Wasted Years").  Quite good except for the exaggerated faux power metal vocals in the background.  I also liked "Liberation" since with the Hammond organ style keyboard use it sounded very much like a metalized version of Uriah Heep.  Overall, this is good, but this is one of the cases where I appreciate the atmosphere a band creates more than their actual music.  Oh yeah, and lest someone point out I overlooked it, Fenriz plays drums here, like on all of their full-lengths.  I say: so what?

Voivod - D-V-O-D-1 DVD
This was totally pristine, one of the best finds.  I'm going to mention some criticisms, but I will fully admit that paying $1.99 was more than worth it for the "Voivod" video alone.   This has video clips, live footage, and some behind-the-scenes footage, with a little something from every album through Angel Rat.  Due to the inclusion of a short '89 live-in-studio set, there's a definite bias towards Nothingface...The DVD really spreads itself thin by trying to cover every album of the original lineup, so for someone like myself who prefers the first two albums, it's a bit lacking.  I was initially excited by the promise of "Ravenous Medicine" video shoot footage on the back of the DVD...Away doing the art for the video backgrounds?!?!?!  Perhaps some footage of the infamous AIDS syringe prop being made?!?!?!  No.  All you get is footage of another camera shooting footage of Away playing drums in front of a blue screen.  On the plus side, the "Psychic Vacuum" video shoot footage was more along the lines of the behind-the-scene stuff I was expecting, showing how some of the low budget special effects were done.  The other extra/bonus footage is just separate clips of Piggy and Snake recording Nothingface.  I should also point out the Morgoth Invasion and Spectrum '87 live tapes are included as audio extras.  While I appreciate the gesture of throwing in some old Iron Gang tapes, it seems kind of strange to include Morgoth Invasion since Metal Blade had just included it in the War and Pain 3-disc reissue, and the space could have been used for something else.

Witchsorrow - Witchsorrow
This was better than I had initially thought it would be--classic doom metal with nary a stoner or drone-influenced section to be found.  The songwriting wasn't strong enough that anything left any significant impression on me, and they're nowhere near the level of any of the essential doom bands, but they have a great guitar tone and it was satisfying enough while it lasted.

This is Hell - This is Hell (2005)

This CD is available for trade.

Wasn't expecting this to be a keeper going in, but I got it just in case it turned out to be tolerable metalcore or sludge.  It's modern hardcore, through and through.  Ironically, I've seen a lineup pic of the band where members are wearing Down and Queensrÿche shirts, but there's no hint of any sort of metal influence here.

Ekove Efrits - Conceptual Horizon (2011)

Cost: $1.99

I already had the band's debut album, which was fairly standard black metal...The main point of interest there being that it was from an exotic country by metal standards (Iran).  There are undiluted black metal sections sprinkled throughout this album, sure, but the album has all sorts of varied avant-garde influences and soundscapes and frequently leaves the realms of metal.  In a very general sense, the bulk of the music here is a sort of ambient rock utilizing some unusual background sounds.  When I say ambient, I must stress it's definitely not the typical dark ambient synth stuff usually incorporated into black metal.  Also, I suppose there are some similarities in the way this mixes black metal with non-metal elements, but I don't find this to have all that much in common with the new breed of shoegaze/post-rock influenced "black metal" stuff, which tends to be more immediately accessible. 

 

In a way, the bizarreness has a greater appeal than the actual music itself.  If nothing else, it's certainly more unique than their older black metal material.

Ääritila - …Ja Kaikki Kuitenkin Päättyy Kuolemaan! (2003)

Cost: $1.00

This CD is available for trade.

Some Swedes and Finns playing old style Finnish crusty hardcore.  Unbeknownst to me when buying this, the bassist is Mr. Jocke Hammar of Chronic Decay fame.  Not going to bother blindly namedropping all the previous bands members have been in since I'm pretty unfamiliar with most of them except for Dischange.

The day God was not with me: Believer - Extraction from Mortality (1989)

Cost: $1.00

 

As an avid used CD hunter, I've had my share of triumphs (some to be blogged about shortly).  This was one of my biggest disappointments.  Why, you ask?  Let's go over what happened in my head:

The spine is sighted on the rack.

Oh, Sanity Obscure is in the bargain bin.  Already have it, but it's cheap, so that's cool.  I'll pick up an extra copy to trade or sell.

I pull it out and look at the cover.

Hell yeah!  Extraction from Mortality!  I need this!

Wait...

WHAT?

 

Yeah...The booklet was for Extraction, but the back insert was for Sanity (creased down the middle, no less).  I went through the bargain bin a couple times, hoping to see the correct back insert with a Sanity Obscure booklet, but no luck.  On the plus side, the disc inside was Extraction from Mortality, so at least I got the music with the correct booklet. This had always been a minor want I was hoping to find in a bargain bin--it would have meant I got all 3 of the first Believers for dirt cheap), making the initial letdown worse.

 

Getting to the actual music, this is my favorite Believer release. By far. Even saying that, it doesn't come anywhere close to being one of my favorite thrash recordings, but it's still pretty good.  Despite the technicality here (though nowhere near as much as the succeeding albums), it's still fast and furious with a lot of bite. The vocals are a little shoutier than what I normally prefer, but not terrible. In fact, the vocal style coupled with the type of thrash they play reminds me of little bit of Devastation's Idolatry. 

 

They never really cross over into death metal territory, but the album often seems right on the cusp of being death/thrash. I've mentioned this before, but the first time I heard Believer (on the R/C At Death's Door compilation), I think I assumed they were some sort of death/thrash or death metal, since that's how I thought about them early on, and they didn't seem significantly different than the other bands. In fact, they fit quite well considering Sadus and Exhorder were also on there. I don't remember what I thought of their track back then and my only specific memory of them from the comp. was thinking Joey Daub's side-shave in the thumbnail band pic looked weird. Listening now, the song they chose for the comp., "Not Even On," isn't awful or anything, but there's much better stuff on the album.The first three tracks are all great ragers, and I love the eerie intro of "Shadow of Death."

 

P.S.  Anyone got a spare back insert for the original R.E.X. pressing?  And does anyone need a spare back insert for the R.E.X. pressing of Sanity Obscure?

Eternal Ryte - World Requiem (1990)

Cost: $1.00

I was originally going to cover this in one of the local finds posts, but I'm getting way behind on them since I don't really group new acquisitions together.  So I'll just do a quick stand-alone writeup.  If I recall, this was the best find from the last of three consecutive trips to the same place that yielded a lot of goodies.

I can summarize my opinion of this disc thusly: it falls slightly short of living up to the coolness of their logo, but the music is far, far better than what the embarrassingly glammy Britny Fox-esque shots on the back cover suggest.  I personally thought their heaviness was somewhat understated by some of the online reviews and info I saw, leading me to expect something along the lines of early Dokken, but that's pretty much what the lightest songs sound like.  It helps that other than some balladish stuff, a majority of the songs are fast-paced and that makes them seem more substantial.  The melodic vocals are okay, but they're admittedly more suited for a hair band and one of the lighter parts of the equation.  This is metal with a very blatant commercial sheen.  Even though it suffers from some of the same commercial pitfalls, this is heavier than a lot of the typical L.A. stuff--just don't go in expecting old W.A.S.P. or Lizzy Borden.