Medusa Oblongada - Medusa Oblongada (1995)

Cost: 25¢

I was expecting this to be more avant-garde than industrial (which I would have preferred).  This band was made up of members of (the then recently broken up) Viogression.  I do like Expound and Exhort, but this is a radical departure from that so it's pointless to make musical comparisons.

Metal-archives labels this as industrial thrash metal, which seems to be a fair general description, although the amount of industrial influence in the music varies a lot.  The guitarwork is pretty thrashy and at times the drumming is the only industrial element to the music, while they go full-on industrial metal in some places.  Many times there were sections where I thought I would be getting some relief from the industrial sound (beginning of "Galen," for example),  and then it comes back in full force.  The vocals are unfortunately either overly aggro or in the stereotypical industrial metal style with distortion added.

The Viogression/Medusa Oblongada musical trajectory reminds me a lot of Demented Ted/Beyond.  I liked both bands' death metal output but not their later industrialized material.  Their earlier sound had no hints of what they would experiment with later, and the industrial stuff doesn't carry any noticeable influences from their old sound.

Shredding Across the World Volume One compilation (2008)

Cost $1.00

As far as shred guitar stuff goes, I thought this was pleasant enough to listen to.  Despite being an indie release, the playing and compositional quality of the tracks overall is quite good.  More importantly, the majority of tracks are based in heavy metal style and guitar technique.  This makes it far more appealing than say, some of the later Shrapnel compilations that are just general guitar showmanship with a lot of proggy and jazzy stuff to wade through.  As to be expected, lots of neo-classical Yngwie worship on here.  Liked the Hitoshi Nakamura and Darin J. Moore tracks the best.

Frost Bite - Icy Hell (2009 reissue)

Cost: $2.99

This CD is available for trade.

This is Jack Frost's (of Seven Witches fame) old band, so I was expecting standard heavy or power metal.  Even the band photos (every member clad all in black with a leather jacket) didn't hint at anything amiss, but I found it very disappointing.

The combination of rocking sensibilities, commerciality, and overuse of balladish material here make it seem more like an '80s hair band record than a real heavy metal album.  They're not commercial in the typical glammy/sleazy L.A.-style metal way, but there are just some awful musical choices here..."Wish" and "Spotlight" brought Tesla to mind, and at the end of "2nd Time Around," the band suddenly switches the chorus to Sha-na-na-na-na, something that seems more appropriate for the Bay City Rollers.

Know how in the '80s, even smaller and more underground bands would generally put a ballad or an overly commercial/light/mellow/whatever-you-want-to-call-it track on a release?  Imagine a full-length made up of nothing but songs like that, and that approximates this release.  The kindest thing I can say about it is that it was released in 1994 but seems completely believable as an '80s recording.

I guess there was an older independent press which Locomotive used scans of for this reissue, because on the inside of the booklet, they neglected to crop out the original page edge and tab mark damage from a CD case.  So there are actually indentation marks printed onto the booklet, making the layout look cheap and rushed.