Everything Comes & Goes compilation (2005)

Cost: $1.00

An experimental/indie tribute to Ozzy-era Black Sabbath.

1. Matmos - F/X

 Disposable intro track.  Replicates the guitar noises of the original with electronic effects.

2. Ruins - Reversible Sabbath

Short medley of drum/bass-only versions of several infamous Sabbath riffs. Midway through the track the entire medley is played through backwards, hence the name.  The heaviest and most technically proficient track on here.

3. Grails - Black Sabbath

Twangy, feedback-laden instrumental version.  Initially it seems as if it's going to be a fairly minimalist drone or sludge style cover, but they throw a violin in the background and as the song tempo builds it ends up being a very interesting rendition.  

4. Four Tet - Iron Man

Acoustic rendition of the main riff over a beat track with minor electronic influences.  Mellow and suprisingly pleasant.

5. Curtis Harvey Trio - Changes

Starts off straightforward, but 45 seconds in becomes an acoustic-guitar driven folk/country version.  Due to the music style and it being the first track (and one of the few) with vocals, it stands out negatively compared to other tracks.  Okay for what it is, but admittedly lacks the melancholic feel the original accomplished with just a piano and vocals.

6. Paul Newman - Fairies Wear Boots

Straightforward garage rock instrumental version.  Unfortunately it's sorely missing the Iommi guitar tone and although well-played, has no real novelty that compels me to listen to it again.

7. The Anomoanon - Planet Caravan

No distortion on the vocals and the percussion is much less prominent than on the original.  While the original has an extremely psychedelic feel, this is more mellow and spacey.

8. Racebannon - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

Could have been interesting, but has noisecore-styled multi-layered snarling/wailing/screaming vocals.  Yes, they're discordant on purpose, but too distracting to make the track enjoyable.

9. Greenness w/ Philly G - Sweet Leaf

Sort of a bouncy post-rock version with some electronic effects.  Vocals are good but the main riff seems off.

Even with the varying styles the quality level here is generally high.  My initial verdict is that this CD comes off a bit better than the typical "genre X covers genre Y" compilations, which are usually just excuses to be overzealously avant-garde or to make musically incongruous covers for irony's sake.  While some of the tracks are adapted well, I don't see this escaping the fate of being played only a few times for novelty value.  Time will tell.

Terminus - Victim Culture (1995)

Cost: $1.00

Here's an ooooold find I bought in the late '90s.  Quick background: the guys in Terminus (Peter Johnson and Derek Norberg) were in an early '90s Boston thrash band called Heresy who relocated to California and dissolved at some point.

The music on this mCD is industrialized metal, with the main industrial element being the programmed percussion--there are actually no "regular" drum sounds, it's all repetitive factory sounding noises like the sound of an anvil being struck and various beats, chinks, and clinks.  There is also a single instance of sampling, but that's the only industrial.  The vocals are fairly generic gruff singing with none of the usual annoying industrial effects or processing, but the vox often have an odd stilted cadence to match the background rhythms.  Not unexpectedly due to the members' previous band, the guitarwork is very thrash based.  It's a shame because the first song has a nice main riff that would have worked well in a more traditional thrash framework with real drumming.

 

I don't have much of a tolerance for most industrial "metal" (apart from drum machine black metal of the Helheim and Mysticum variety), so I do appreciate that this only has limited industrial influences and it's listenable.  Then again, there are thousands of other bands without the industrial stuff in them that I'd rather listen to...

Reissue of Heresy demos please?

Menza - Life After Deth (2001)

Cost: Part of a CD lot I picked up years ago, probably worked out to less than $1

 

The main problem(s) with this CD are obvious just by reading the liner notes--Menza plays everything on the album except for some guitar solos, and also co-produces and co-mixes.  For better (no) or for worse (yes) he's in complete control.  But the band he came from weren't exactly great at self-editing and musical governance in their later years, so why would Nick Menza himself be?

 

It's surprising how amateurish many parts of the disc are, especially the awful vocals--they show little control or sense of melody.  There's also a definite lack of songwriting cohesion or focus in general.  Some tracks come across as an extremely lo-fi version of the later Megadeth material with Menza, others are more standard rock tracks.  And oddly, for a drummer's solo album, the drumming is...well, not very noteworthy.  Some have said it sounds like a drum machine (I agree), and the drumming is pretty far forward in the mix, but the playing itself doesn't seem very impressive or inspired.

The only part of the CD I liked was the short Middle Eastern flavored instrumental hidden at the end of the last track (which is incidentally better than most Nile material).

Well of Souls - Volume Novena (1994) and Jail Steak (1997)

Well of Souls - Volume Novena

Cost: $1.00

Got this one mostly because of the cover and band name, and I was expecting it to either be psychedelic/doomy or funk ala Mind Funk/Last Crack/Infectious Grooves.  Most of the songs are a combination of two things--first, there's a psychedelic/groovy element through most of the songs, although it comes off more like heavy alternative rock than even something like say, newer Trouble. The band is also fond of using effects, vocal distortion, and rhythmic patterns which give things an industrial flavor.

"Dr. Doompuss" is more like what I expected the band to be--just a short funky song with parts that brought Voivod to mind.  The best track on here is their cover of Pink Floyd's "Welcome to the Machine," where they ditch the jangly guitars of the original and make it very percussion-heavy and dark. Very ambient sounding with all the spacey sound effects.

Well of Souls - Jail Steak

Cost: $1.00

Found this a few years after getting the first CD.  Groovier and less dark than Volume Novena, and "This is Why" even has rap vocals.  No redeeming factors here.

I was pretty surprised this band is listed at metal-archives in the first place, but whoever tagged them as heavy/power metal needs a lobotomy, pronto.  (UPDATE: They've sensibly been removed from the site)

Eclipse - Lunacy (1995)

Eclipse - Lunacy

Cost: $2.00

Date: 2005

Picked this one up as an ambiguous-looking indie. The cover art and last song ("Mr. Turtle") didn't seem metal at all, so it was ultimately the band photo collage (all longhairs, and one member is wearing a leather jacket in almost every pic) that prompted me to take a chance.  I remember not being initially impressed and putting the CD aside.  Fast foward a couple of years, and I notice the CD is being touted online as rare indie thrash.  Was I remembering the music incorrectly?

Nope, just unscrupulous sellers trying to generate interest in the disc.

There's a lot of heavy metal technique and tone in the guitar playing, but that doesn't translate into a metal album.  Initially the CD shifts between heavy alternative rock (with funky influences interwoven into the riffs) and melancholic hard rock (2 songs on the album are clean guitar-driven ballads).  Then we get to the Sabbathy "Solitude," a modern/groove metal song with a main riff reminiscent of "Children of the Grave."  "Hideaway" (with its harmonized guitars) and "Hall of the Dancer" (with its galloping main riff) definitely exhibit metal guitarwork, but the vocals and flat, mid-tempo drumming (which I suspect is a drum machine) pull things away from being total metal.  So yeah, not particularly musically satisfying for me.

Don't be fooled.  Obscure?  Seems like it.  But it's not a metal indie release, thrash or otherwise.

Guitars That Rule the World compilation (1992)

Cost: $1.00

1. Reb Beach - "Black Magic"

2. Richie Sambora - "Mr. Sambo"

3. Yngwie Malmsteen - "Leviathan"

4. Paul Gilbert - "I Understand Completely"

5. Elliot Easton - "Walk on Walden"

6. Zakk Wylde - "Farm Fiddlin'"

7. Nuno Bettencourt - "Bumble Bee (Crash Landing)"

8. Alex Skolnick - "Filet of Soul"

9. Richie Kotzen - "Chype Fluxx"

10. Albert Collins - "Blues for Stevie"

11. Dicket Betts & Warren Haynes - "Willie and Poor Bob"

12. Reeves Gabrels - "Why Do I Feel Like I'm Bleeding?"

13. Earl Slick - "Surfer Junkie Dude"

Several years ago I was searching YouTube for live versions of Slayer's "Black Magic."  I happened to come across Reb Beach's song, and thought it was very cool, but had no idea who he was.  It was a little shocking to find out he was the guitarist for WINGER (!!!!) of all bands, and I was kind of disappointed because I didn't know where I could get an audio version of the song (I was expecting I'd have to buy something with Winger-related material on it). 

Problem solved.

"Black Magic" does end up being the best song on here, but there really isn't that much competition.   The Yngwie track isn't particularly exciting.  The Paul Gilbert and Richie Kotzen tracks are somewhat interesting just due to the skill displayed, and the Elliot Easton (guitarist from The Cars) track is a nice folksy atmospheric tune, but it's all downhill after track 1 for me.

Vital - No Redemption (1996)

Cost: Don't remember, probably a buck

This is going to be a quick warning rather than a real review (plus, I've had this disc for so long I can't remember where I even got it).  I've seen this CD labeled as metal a few places online (seemingly by unscrupulous sellers trying to get rid of it), but it's actually post-grunge hard rock.  I don't fault the band; this is just one of those cases where the band name, album cover, songtitles, and band photos (all of 'em are longhairs) are ambiguous enough where the disc could have been any number of things on the rock spectrum. 

Honestly, I do prefer the music here to almost any of the metalcore and Pantera-influenced crap that I've covered (and will unfortunately no doubt cover in the future), but calling this a metal album is a ridiculous stretch.