Victory - Culture Killed the Native (1989)

Cost: $0.99

Okay, judging by the price tag, I bought this in...oh boy...2003.  It's been filed away in a box since then.

I have the band's second album and live album, both of which made it much easier to postpone listening to this.  I wasn't expecting this to be all that heavy, and it wasn't.  I'd wager most of the metal-related interest in the '80s material of the band is due to Herman Frank being in the lineup, who joined them shortly after leaving Accept.

The album as a whole is heavy hard rock--big choruses, commercially-aimed but not overly sugary production, and (comparatively) heavy guitars that provide a harder edge to the band's sound.  The first couple of tracks, particularly opener "More and More," totally remind me of Def Leppard's Pyromania era.  While the guitars are quite heavy at times, they don't do enough to push most of the album into true heavy metal territory.  In fact, the only song here I'd be comfortable actually calling metal is "Let It Rock On," and even then, it's still quite commercial.  This album isn't pretending to be anything it's not and it's fine for what it is, but even for the more polished Euro sound, my ears prefer something a little heavier, ala V2, S.A.D.O., or even Paganini.

Fleshcrawl - Made of Flesh (2004)

Cost: $1.99

This is in the same general vein as all the later Fleshcrawl material starting with Bloodred Massacre--the chunky, classic Swedish-styled guitar work is still the most prominent feature of the band's sound, but there's a much greater use of melodic riffs and leads compared to the band's first three albums, which got downright doomy at times.  This is not my favorite of theirs, but it's still solid.  Oh, and on a personal note, I'm totally disappointed that this is the first album since the debut (no, I'm not counting that Black Mark compilation) without a cover song on at least one version/pressing!  They did an absolutely fantastic job with the Demigod, Demilich, and Carnage covers, and even the non-death metal cover songs were at the very least interesting to listen to.

Insult - I Wanna Be a Burn Victim (1997)

Cost: $1.00

The obvious appeal of the title made me pick it up, although I wasn't expecting it to be a keeper, and I didn't realize at the time that Seth Putnam produced this CD (he'd actually play bass in the band later).  Punkish hardcore here.  Speaking of Seth, I feel the same way about this CD as I do about the majority of Anal Cunt stuff--the music is really secondary to the unrepentant and un-PC humor of the songtitles and lyrics ("Choke Your Grandma" and "Several Well Placed Kicks to the Face," just to give two examples).  Musically it's old-school hardcore punk and nowhere near as noisy and chaotic as AxCx, but I think the vocal style, short song lengths, and lyrical subjects would make this more appealing to grindcore/noisecore fans than hardcore fans.  It certainly did for me.  Also, best part of the CD: short rendition of the Deliverance banjo theme on guitar.  Worst part of the CD: "Charles in Charge" not sounding enough like the show's theme, even though that's what they used as a lyrical basis (though the tune itself is about Charlie Manson).

Withdrawn - A Certain Innate Suffering (1997)

Cost: $1.00

Here we have yet another case where the layout and aesthetics of a CD point to something very different than what's actually on the disc.  Anti-animal slaughter statement on the back booklet.  Wolf cubs on the disc itself.  Band photos (all live) that look like a typical hardcore band (to be fair, though, one of the guitarists is wearing a Slayer shirt in one picture). 

I wrote this off as vegan HC as soon as I saw it, but I did end up buying it as trade fodder (based on the price tag, I got it around late 2005).  It had been languishing in the trade pile for years when I saw the band was listed on metal-archives, and decided to finally give it a listen.

Because of their inclusion and genre listing on metal-archives, I assumed this would be deathcore or some UK version of Earth Crisis.  No hardcore here at all.  They play a very British style of death metal, mostly slower-paced and doomy.  The vocals are done in a raspy style and while they don't detract from the music per se, I think traditional growled vox would have fit the music better.  While it's nowhere near the (un)godly level of old Paradise Lost or Decomposed, it's still pretty competent stuff.

Finally, on a sad side note, I was so pleasantly surprised by this mCD, I sought out sound samples of the full-length that followed this.  Unfortunately, it's got the HC vox and influences I was initially afraid this would have.