Dollar-bin finds

These are all from an early 2013 trip (didn't keep track of the exact date).

Geoff Tate - Geoff Tate
I picked this up (obviously) for the Queensrÿche associations, and yes, I was sort of expecting Queensrÿche-lite.  Also keep in mind, apart from the first EP (which I find excellent, but not exemplary), I don't find the notion of Queensrÿche to be terribly exciting.  Listening revealed it's very far removed from Queensrÿche.  I'm not going to crucify this album, but it may as well not exist, because it holds no meaning for me one way or the other.  Let me stress that there's no metal on here.  A few songs are darker in tone, but there's nothing even remotely heavy here by metal standards.  It's rock/pop with widely varying influences from electronic/trance to jazz--very mellow and inoffensive stuff.  The variety of sounds here don't automatically translate into progressive music, so apart from the total ballads, it's not that comparable to Queensrÿche's more mellow material.  Executed well but not in my realm of interest.

Lord Belial - Unholy Crusade
This is the first album by the band I've ever found, and I'm surprised it took so long.  Was even more surprised that this was the original No Fashion version, not the Metal Blade press.

Sceptic - Pathetic Being
Melodic technical death metal with (mostly) raspy vocals, though it wasn't as technical as I expected.  There's a very strong melodic death metal uncurrent here, and they don't really go full out into the realms of jazz influences or extremely freeform song structures.  Much of the riffing is quite reminiscent of later Death material.  The cover of Nocturnus' "Arctic Crypt" is at the respectable-quality-but-doesn't-even-compare-to-the-original level, and I feel the same way about it as I do for the whole album: lukewarm. 

Silent Civilian - Rebirth of the Temple
This didn't look like anything I would want, but I happened to look inside and noticed a Testament shirt on one of the band members (as it turns out, the guy from Spineshank), so I felt compelled to get it.  Standard metalcore.