Ghost (B.C.) - Secular Haze CD-single (2013)

Cost: 99¢

This is one of those 2-song CD-singles that retails for $2, but includes a voucher so you get $2 off if you buy the album it's designed to promote.  Anvil also had a similar CD-single which I plucked from a dollar bin a while ago (hopefully the full-length albums will show up in the bargain bin eventually).

I'm rather apathetic towards Ghost's music.  They remind me of Opeth in that a lot of the elements in the music appeal to non-metal fans, but they are weird/avant-garde enough to avoid the stigma of being mainstream and thus have some underdog appeal.  I don't actively dislike their music, but it doesn't really satisfy my metal hunger, and the throwback parts of their sound don't really kindle any flames of '70s nostalgia.  Just from being online, I know they're quite popular right now, but in my area you'd never know it, as I've never heard any discussion of them at all.  Watain is still the big thing with the kids. 

The two songs on here are less heavy than the material on their debut.  I wouldn't classify the music as such, but it almost evokes the same feeling as listening to gothic rock for me.  The title track has an opening (and recurring) keyboard melody/guitar riff that sound like demented carnival music.  Their version of ABBA's "I'm a Marionette" sounds like a Ghost original and if I had first heard it randomly without knowing the songtitle, I probably wouldn't have recognized it.  I don't like it as a cover, though--I think the ABBA version actually has a weirder atmosphere that fits the theme of the song, and I miss all the little orchestral effects in the background of of the original.

Jeff Scheetz - Dig! (1992)

Cost: 10¢

Pawn shop find.  Pretty obvious from the art that it's a guitar instrumental/shred album.  This was released on the Pure Metal sub-label, which is misleading in two ways.  First of all, as with some of the later Pure Metal titles, it's not a pure metal release!  It's a bit heavier than I was expecting, and though quite bluesy at times, mostly stays within the general hard rock spectrum.  But it's definitely not instrumental metal or neo-classical Yngwie cloning or anything like that.  

Secondly, it's not heavy-handedly Christian at all--very surprising for Pure Metal.  In fact, I would say the two Jeff Scheetz albums are the least overtly religious releases the label ever did!  Jesus gets a mandatory shout-out in the thanks list and one of the songs has a clear Christian title and theme, but this could have easily been released on a secular label.  I suppose they were trying to cater to all the lost souls in Steve Vai's fanbase.  Though I have nothing bad to say about the playing, I'm generally not a huge fan of this sort of stuff.  The major players of the instrumental rock guitar scene don't interest me, let alone this guy, so this is another disc doomed to fill up shelf space.

Testament - Electric Crown CD-Single (1992)

Cost: 50¢

Date: July 20, 2013

This CD is available for trade.

Nice find for the price, but I already picked this promotional CD-single in a bargain bin years ago, so I wasn't terribly excited about it as a duplicate.  Edit and album versions of "Electric Crown," plus the short little "Signs of Chaos" (which was the intro to The Ritual album). 

Except for The Legacy, I think I've hardly listened to any Testament studio album all the way through after the initial exploratory spin (yep, that includes The New Order--I usually just end up playing "Disciples of the Watch" over and over).  In my head I rate The Ritual a little bit above Practice... and Souls...just because I like the song "Agony," while from the latter two nothing really stood out all that much.  The Ritual is often referred to as being Testament's version of the black album, and between this single and my somewhat vague recollections of the album as a whole (slower tempos, much less thrashy sound), that definitely seems to be the case.

Blo.Torch - Blo.Torch (1999)

Cost: $1.99

Let's get the obvious out of the way.  The band's name is terrible and off-putting.  The cover and logo are as well, for that matter.  I don't know where the idea came from, but for a long time I had heard OF the band but not heard them, and I thought they were in the Misery Loves Co. vein.

I'm a little surprised Wicked World/Earache released this, especially as around this general time period, Nuclear Blast had a pretty sizeable melodic death and modernized death/thrash roster.  The band plays melodic death metal with black metal styled vocals.  Compared to the Gothenburg melodic DM archetype, this album is a tad more musically aggressive, focuses less on guitar harmonics, and uses tempo variation to a greater degree...Though used sparingly, I thought the best parts of the album were the doomier sections, and it makes me wish these guys had formed a doom/death band instead (a style the Dutch have excelled at, after all).  On the negative side, there are unnecessary clean vocal sections in "King of Karnage" and at the beginning of "Bloodstains"--they just served as momentum killers.

Deride - First Round Knockout (2002)

Cost: $1.00

Not that he's a quality indicator, but Frediablo is in the band (as well as the Grimfist guitarist).  I don't recall if I even bothered looking through the booklet before buying, though.  I think I picked it up since it looked like some sort of hardcore or extreme rock CD.  If it was crap, I could just use it as trade fodder.  Modern aggressive metal here, full of groovy, crunchy riffs.  Sometimes there will be more straightforward thrashy riffs that bridge the groovier sections--these might have been okay on their own, but in this context they're just wasted.  The vocals are surprisingly varied (there are even some black metal style backing vocals at times), but the main vox are reminiscent of Max Cavalera.

Gandalf - Rock Hell (2001)

Cost: $1.00

I already had a general idea that this album was supposed to combine death metal and rock.  It's melodic death metal that does incorporate some '70s hard rock influences or bluesier rocking riffs at times, but for an album named Rock Hell there was much less rock influence than I was expecting--and it greatly tapers off during the second half of the album.

The songs here are pretty varied...For example, opener "L8X Queen" uses a slightly slowed-down version of a melody Twisted Sister used on "Under the Blade."  Closer "Castle of the Stars" has an epic, almost viking metal feel with its use of male choral vocals in the background.

Overall, not bad for a buck.  I do appreciate they were trying to do something different than just straight In Flames or Children of Bodom emulation.

Thyrane - Travesty of Heavenly Essence (2005)

Cost: $2.99

The cover art for this one confused me at first when I saw it online.  Then I got the actual CD and I realized it's supposed to be Homeless Jesus!

It's rare for bands to recover when they've taken on non-metal influences, especially so quickly, but this album is one of those examples.  Previously they had mixed symphonic black metal and industrial/electronic influences on the Hypnotic album, but this reverts back to the melodic black metal vein of their earlier stuff, which I find far preferable.  I want to say there's a very slight industrial feel to the drumming in a few sections, though had they not released an industrialized album I probably wouldn't have taken any note of it.