June 20/21, 2013 finds

Not my worst CD-hunting day, but not a particularly one great either...Especially since these finds were completely overshadowed by my finds on the 22nd, which I'll cover in a separate post.

A scant two finds at the first store I hit:

Built for Speed: A Motörhead Tribute - $1.00 
A Victory Records tribute to Motörhead.  I had seen this disc before over the years but since I wasn't terribly enthusiastic about the prospect of hardcore/punk covers, I was hoping to eventually snag it in a bargain bin.  When I found it I had honestly sort of forgotten about it.  On to the track breakdown:

1. Blood for Blood - Ace of Spades
Dumb intro.  The additions and tweaks they add to the song are silly and in bad taste, especially the slow breakdown...However, I've heard extremely sloppy live renditions so amazingly it's not the worst version I've heard.

2. Groovie Ghoulies - R.A.M.O.N.E.S.
Very punkish.  The pop-punk/rockabilly sort of vocals are weak and really hurt things.

3. Integrity - Orgasmatron
Kind of odd to hear Dwid's approximation of Lemmy's gravelly voice at first.  The cover is well-played but seems very lethargic.  The original is more energetic and heavier to boot.

4. Dropkick Murphys - Rock and Roll
Pretty much how I expected, though the guitarwork is simplified from the original.  Kudos for their song choice, at least.

5. Skarhead - Sweet Revenge
No "Hello, victims!"????  Ultra-forced vocals?  Dumb shout-outs during the song?  This cover never had a chance...

6. Electric Frankenstein - We are the Road Crew
Best cover by far.

7. Chrome Locust - Metropolis
Music - very good.  Vocals - not so good.

8. Zeke - I'll Be Your Sister
Pretty good, probably the second best track on here.

9. Fahrenheit - No Class
I can't tell if the vocals are slightly out of tune on purpose or not.  They don't help, in any case.

10. Terra Firma - Bomber
This is one of those done-in-a-totally-different-way-for-ironic-or-comedic-effect covers.  In this case, a mellowed out version.  From a technical standpoint I guess it's okay but the joke wears thin quickly.

11. Speedealer - Motörhead
Decent cover, the vocals tend to be a little spastic, though.


Lanfear - The Art Effect - $1.00
Progressive power metal.


Then I headed to a used CD/DVD liquidation sale.  Did find some discs, but nothing super.  I was slightly disappointed I came away with so little stuff considering the amount of CDs there and the time spent going through them:

The Banner - Each Breath Haunted - $1.00
Screamy hardcore.  Hardly anything in the way of metallic influence here considering the layout style and label (Ferret). 

Blackmore's Night - Winter Carols - $2.00
A pure novelty purchase, made because a) I know who Ritchie Blackmore is, b) I was getting tired of finding very little at the sale, and c) it was in excellent condition.  I really have nothing positive or negative to say since this is so out of my musical league, although with the female vocals and medieval/renaissance nature of the carols I was reminded a bit of Loreena Mckennitt or some of the new age Celtic music that's out there.  This is a disc my mother would enjoy more than myself.  Now if only Halford's Christmas album would show up in a bargain bin...

Hellnation - Fucked Up Mess - $2.00
This was the next to last disc I picked up...At the time, I thought this was going to be my best find, which reiterates how disappointing this sale was.   Hardcore punk played at hyperfast speed.  I've seen them classified all sorts of ways, though during the brief occasions they play slower, things can be positively identified as punk based music.  Those are rare, however, as this is a quite short and relentless CD.  Even though the vocals are screamed out wildly and unintelligibly, I can still hear a certain punk snottiness in the voice.    So should this be properly classified as grindcore?  Powerviolence?  Feel free to argue whichever way you want, but it will most likely take you longer than the 25 min. playing time (also keep in mind that includes the final 10 min. track which has about 9 min. of silence).

Hindrance - Rebirth  - $2.00
The best find of the sale, which I almost completely overlooked.  After going through everything, my finds weren't that great, so I was backtracking, trying to find a Queens of the Stone Age CD I had passed on during my initial perusal.  Never did find it again (there were two overly talkative morons there who felt compelled to loudly discuss and banter about discs they saw--one of them probably snagged it), but I did happen to notice this.  I saw the Hecatombe logo and was instantly consoled.  Your standard death/grind (the creepy piano intro to "Wake Up the Decapitated" is cool, though) with Napalm Death cover.  But it was nice to find something more underground at the sale.  By the way, the secret track at the end of the disc is "Gordas sin Tetas."  It's also on their first album, so I would assume this is a new version, but I'm not completely sure.

The Mighty Nimbus - The Mighty Nimbus - $2.00
This was the very first CD I found at the sale...Would have been nice if I didn't already have it (UPDATE - this was traded away).  Bluesy sludge/doom.  The cover of St. Vitus' "Born Too Late" is pretty decent, kinda wish the singer would have used his cleaner vox for it though.

Virgin Black - Requiem - Mezzo Forte - $2.00
This was a pleasant surprise.  I had only heard of this band in passing and assumed them to be more or less standard gothic doom.  I guess the best term for this would be orchestral doom metal, with full blown symphonic and choral parts.  Unlike a lot of bands with symphonic elements/influences, this is not just getting by with a keyboard or an added instrument or two...It was recorded with the help of an actual orchestra so the classical element of the music is extremely powerful and well-executed.  This album evokes a really somber mood--good stuff.

Punishment - Titanium (1999)

Cost: 99¢  

This looked like (and is) a definite dud, but hey, it was cheap, so I took the chance.  Initially this looked like it might be some sort of industrial release due to the band name, album title, font of the band logo, and the picture on the back insert (some plastic tubing).  

The inner liner notes made it painfully obvious this was probably either going to be nu-rock or some sort of groove-laden modern thrash at best.  I quote a group of bands mentioned in the thanks list, which pretty much says it all: "Korn, Sepultura, Machine Head, Crowbar, Pantera, Stuck Mojo, Seven Dust."  Yeah...

I was quite surprised by the first song, since it seemed to have some death metal influence.  Unfortunately that was mainly because of the downtuned guitars, liberal use of growling backing vocals, and some riffing that was decidedly less groovy than the rest of the album.  As the CD goes on it becomes clear that there's little in their groovy, aggro style metal/rock mix to excite the metal fan.  Yeah, this isn't the worst I've heard--the vocals aren't as ultra-forced as some and thus less annoying, and they do avoid throwing actual rap parts into the music, but I wouldn't listen to this crap anyway.  I should also add that the lyrics are hilarious to read and cringeworthy to hear.  Just strings of dopey "motherfucker" and "fuck you" laced toughguy-isms filled with white trash angst, like the worst Pantera lyrics to the nth power (they actually have a song titled "Punk Bitch").  For the facially pierced and tribal tattooed crowd only.