Goliath - The Gate (2001)

Cost: $2.00

Nice Sabbathy guitar tone here, but the music is a bit too groovy for my taste, being more doomy stoner metal than pure doom.  Think a general sound that's pretty close to many of Wino's bands apart from St. Vitus and The Obsessed, just with different vox.

Wrekking Machine - Mechanistic Termination (1993)

Cost: $1.99

Don't worry, this is an old find (would suck to only be finding it now when it's about to be reissued).  If I remember right, I got this during my very last visit to the local Wherehouse before they unexpectedly closed.  I recall getting a couple of discs at the time, but the only ones I positively remember are this and a $2.99 copy of Sabbath's Live at Last.  They also had one of those Metal Christmas CD with Paul Di'Anno doing a rendition of "White Christmas" but alas, I didn't pick it up.  I believe this wasn't even in the racks and was in a box of discs (which of course I rifled through) on the side of the store waiting to be shelved.

The band plays technical thrash with some quirky ideas, and there's often a slight crossover feel due to the overall playfulness, the gang choruses, and the slight snarkiness to the vocals.  Think a Bay Area thrash version of old Watchtower.  It's driving me nuts because I keep thinking there's a near perfect vocal comparison to reference, but it's eluding me.  They're clean and high in the way a lot of technical/prog. thrash vox are, but not as high or shrieky or classic metal influenced as say, Jason McMaster.  To a certain extent, the tone and cadence reminds me of the vocals on Vio-lence's "Calling in the Coroner," but I must stress they're nowhere near as crazy as Sean Killian's vocals can get.  Hopefully I'll come up with a better comparison.

Should also add the cover is kind of a shame, as being early '90s CG art (complete with flare effect) it gives false impressions of what the music will be like.  Luckily the band's logo is cool.

Fun useless fact: For years I remembered the song title "Nothin' Ta Do (And All Day Ta Do It In)" (just the title, not the actual music), but not who did it, and thought it was a Forced Entry song for a long time.

June 3, 2016 finds

All of the day's discs were a buck each.

First stop was a book and music sale.  I wouldn't classify any finds there as spectacular, although some of the eclectic finds meant I did better than usual at these kinds of sales.

Apocalyptica - Wagner Reloaded - Live in Leipzig
More compelling than a lot of their later studio material, but that said, I'd just as soon listen to a real Wagner piece than this.

Despair - Pattern Life
Hardcore.  Trade fodder.

The Silverhounds - Nevermore
I bought this solely because a) it was brand new and b) the drummer had on an Adicts shirt, and I thought it might be tradeable punk.  Mix of punk, metal, and psychobilly.  The vocals are a semi-clean crooning (not as Danzig-like as that might imply) closer to something from a horror punk or gothic band.  

I wasn't very optimistic since the album starts out with a heavy chugga chugga riff and upon closer examination the guitarist sports Machine Head and Black Dahlia Murder patches.  On the one hand, I was surprised how much metal influence this showed off at times, although most of it is in the form of modern thrash style riffing which I don't think would be terribly interesting taken out of this context. The one exception is the title track, which has a cool speed metal main riff and some nice soloing.  Not up my alley enough to keep, though.  I can't help but think this is what SuicideGirls/Burning Angel type chicks consider to be metal.

Scythe - The Seventh Day CD-R
Normally I don't bother with CD-Rs, but the price was right.   Wasn't expecting much based on the cheap-looking, silly cover.  In theory, the Grim Reaper giving a sermon could be a cool concept (not as cool as the Grim Reaper crashing through a stained glass window on a motorcycle, though), but it looks like he only attracts the crudely drawn dregs of society to church.  The band logo also looks a little odd, as if they cobbled together letters from various logos including a very plain H.  The S looks suspiciously similar to Sadus'.

The first song starts off deceptively with a slow-paced intro/buildup reminiscent of something off Morbid Angel's "Covenant," so I had no idea what I was in for, but thankfully they settle into orthodox thrashing.  The middle two tracks are the best--the title track reminds me of some of the more underground late '80s crossover-tinged west coast thrash that was prominent after the initial Bay Area explosion had fizzled out.  "The Virus" has more of a Germanic thrash feel--reminds me a bit of the second Vendetta album, maybe?  Their strongest material feels genuinely old and doesn't really have the telltale modern missteps that plague a lot of retrothrash.  I think I would be hard-pressed to identify those middle tracks as being from 2009 if I didn't know beforehand.

Seekers Pass - The Sands of Time
Just looking at the disc, nothing conclusively metal about this, but I went ahead and bought it, realistically expecting it to be prog. rock.  But this turned out to be prog. metal and can be counted as one of my rare successes on a blind purchase.  The main influence here is early '90s Fates Warning, although the mellower sections are definitely more Queensrÿche-ish, and the vocals lean towards being more Tate-like than Alder-like. One disappointment about it, though--the song "Denying Reality" opens with a cool galloping riff (my favorite part of the entire disc) and I excitedly thought it was going to be some Arch-era Fates Warning worship, but it segues into stuff more like the rest of the disc.  Oh well.

Shred Bettie - Born Again
One of the few obvious indie releases at the sale, so I bought it for trade fodder.  Wasn't expecting metal, but the band name made me think it might be retro-hairband type stuff.  Female-fronted rock.

Whitecross - In the Kingdom
Trade fodder.  Just a Christian version of hair band music with the obligatory ballads, even less heavy than their earlier Ratt-ish stuff.  Oddly some of the vocal phrasings give off a Lizzy Borden vibe.

Then went to hit up one of my usual bargain bins, and came away with quite a varied stack of collection filler:

Alcoholics Unanimous - 20 Years of Tanked Up Tunes 
Had never heard of AU before and figured it was punk.  While it is a project of the core duo from Rancid Vat, the gimmick here is drinking songs, both originals and covers, so very little of the music is actual punk.  I found the entire CD of this stuff very tedious, and it's probably material that is best left for novelty EPs or as joke tracks on punk/hc recordings.  Jeff Clayton of ANTiSEEN does vocals for the last couple of tracks (the Dixie Fried EP).

Astra - The Black Chord
70s-style progressive rock.  Knowing nothing about the band, the Metal Blade and Rise Above logos geared me up to expect psychedelic doom or stoner rock.  So even while not metal, I suppose I came out ahead.

Diapsiquir - Virus S.T.N.
Industrial-laden black metal with all sorts of disparate elements added.  I have the 2CD with their demos but I couldn't remember the music, so I had to go back and check if they started out being so experimental.  Their early stuff flirts with some ideas, but this disc just goes overboard.  Certain things I don't mind, like the sampling or their rendition of The Godfather theme, but the vocals (usually shouted-in-French main vocals and several sorts of lame "hysterical" additional vox) and histrionic tangents they go off on feel like failed attempts to seem crazy and schizophrenic.  It just comes off as silly and heavy-handedly avant-garde to me.  When more traditional BM elements show up they are generally appealing (the doomy riff at the beginning of "Organisation Contamination" is probably the best part of the disc), but they're way too sparse.  Glad I didn't have to pay more than a buck for this.

Michael Fath - Suspended Animation
I bought this in case it was (and hoping for) shred, but it's instrumental rock guitar stuff.  There's nothing remotely heavy on the disc until the end (I'll get to that in a minute), but I enjoyed the mellower material on the disc--the classically styled "JoLaurel : Dantz" and the dreamy "In Memory of Little Danny"--more.  Still wouldn't have been a keeper.  However, the store's price tag/UPC label covered up the bottom of the tracklisting, so unbeknownst to me when buying it, the last track turns out to be a cover of "Highway Star."   It's quite a good one at that, so I may hold on to this for now.

Humangled - Odd Ethics
Death metal, just a short mCD.  They play around with a lot of different tempos, even within single songs, but they're not at all technical or progressive like that might imply.  At times they have a groovy, somewhat death'n'roll feel.

In This Moment - Sick Like Me CD-single
Trade fodder.  I was aware of them but had never actually heard their music, and based on their fanbase alone knew this certainly wasn't going to be metal, even if misrepresented as such.  I was actually expecting female-fronted -core stuff, but this is nu-rock (the title track also has some clean-vocalled Evanescence-like sections). 

Lecherous Nocturne - The Age of Miracles Has Passed
For some reason--obviously the initials, duh--whenever I see the band name I initially immediately think of Lestregus Nosferatus, the Hallow's Eve related band that put out a couple of demos.  Generic death metal.  No memorability for me at all.

Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Ozz
Old Jet Records press.  I was surprised to see it for just a buck since initially it looked to be in pretty good condition, although when I got home I realized someone initialed the cover.  Oh well, probably would have bought it anyway.  Hadn't listened to the original album in a while (much less an unremastered version) and I honestly forgot a lot of the nuances on it.  I like certain aspects of all of the first 4 Ozzy albums but this is probably the strongest overall.

Ozzy Osbourne - Ozzmosis (2002 remaster)
"Perry Mason" is great of course, and is the last thing Ozzy's done that I've cared about.  Overall No More Tears presented better examples of commercially viable songs and ballads than the material here, and it wasn't even that good of an album.  One of the remaster bonus tracks, "Whole World's Fallin' Down," is marginally better than most of the other songs since it has more of an Ultimate Sin feel.

Pain of Salvation - Entropia
This isn't my preferred type of progressive metal (I prefer the '80s stuff that is basically traditional HM with some minor progressive tendencies--with a huge emphasis on the metal over the progressive), but I liked the album a little more than I expected.  While I appreciate the musicianship and quirkiness here, it's more of an interesting listen than an actively enjoyable one.   This is something I would put on as mellow background music.

Soilwork - The Early Chapters
5-track EP.  Earlier Soilwork is listenable but I never considered them to be one of the better Swedish melodic DM bands, so let's go straight to the 2 covers, which are the most interesting tracks anyway.  Deep Purple's "Burn" is enjoyable instrumentally but the extreme main vox and backing female vox just don't work.  I have the Mercyful Fate tribute disc the "Egypt" cover was originally on and I couldn't even remember their version at all even though I like the original.  It comes off as bland, as if they discarded everything interesting about the song when converting it to a melodic DM style.  They don't attempt to mimic King's vocals, which I'm not necessarily against since it can be treacherous ground to venture in, but obviously they are an integral part of the original song and they don't do anything to make up for that loss.

Stainless Steel - Red Heat Within
Power metal, the day's best find.

Hammer Down: The Tribute to Motörhead 
Crimson Mask Rec. re-release of the Dead Forever tribute originally on Dwell.  I was never able to pick up the original tribute, so I can't complain about finding this for a buck, although it's disappointing the packaging is even more generic now--especially the skull/iron cross artwork (which is a shame considering the Dead Forever cover was at least an attempt at a Snaggletooth homage).

1. Coffin Texts - Steal Your Face
Definitely the best of the extreme-styled covers on here.  While more DM styled vocals aren't the best fit for Motörhead, the rest of the cover compensates.

2. Deceased - Stay Clean
Quite good (of course), musically the closest cover to the original.  Only cover I had previously heard.

3. Hate Theory - Bad Religion
Not awful, but disappointing given the underrated song choice.  Starts out like it might be okay, but has very forced vocals in multiple styles, and adds some needless downtuned chug parts.

4. Acheron - (Don't Need) Religion
Kinda boring.  Not awful though, I was expecting much worse. 

5. Hostile Intent - Ace of Spades
What the hell is this?  Nearly unrecognizable except for the chorus.    It's not like it's bad in a sloppy, off the cuff way either--it sounds like a) the band only casually knew the song and took many liberties with it or b) they couldn't play it and overly simplified it.  Doesn't sound right to begin with, and has awful Anselmo aggro vocals on top of it.  Easily worst cover on here, and as far as I can remember, the worst recorded "Ace of Spades" cover I've heard.

6. Vile - Love Me Like a Reptile
I should point out that most people think the Vile here and on Dwell's Kiss tribute is the CA death metal band, but it's the NYC band.  Doomy/stoner rock version.  Interesting interpretation, but the vocals are a bit too weird and off-putting, particularly the moaned, drawn-out chorus.  Weirdest/most unconventional cover due to the vox.

7. Blood Coven - Deaf Forever
The synth intro made me fear that they were going to try to inject this with corny atmosphere, then the song started and it seemed okay; of course, they show up again for the chorus.  Would have been a decent extreme cover version without the invasive synths and black metal backing vox.

8. Tchort - The Chase Is Better Than the Catch
Straight-up cover.  Quite faithful to the original but the singer has much cleaner vox than Lemmy's, giving it a bit of a different feel.

9. Tyrant - Killed By Death
I had totally forgotten the California Tyrant did a bunch of Dwell tribute covers until I saw the Mays listed while I was looking at the liner notes!  Vocals are surprisingly rough and not up to usual Tyrant standards, even compared to King of Kings (to say nothing of the band's '80s LPs).  Aside from the vox, good cover.

10. Noctuary - Iron Fist
Not the best BM vocals I've heard, but energetic cover, way better than expected.

11. Engrave - (We Are) the Road Crew
Mixed bag.  There's a weird dual vocal style here, with gruff semi-DM main vocals and higher backing vocals in sync.  It sounds like they were using them in tandem for a more Lemmy-like delivery, but it just seems odd to me.  I probably would have enjoyed it more with standard extreme vox.  Musically it's fine, and I thought it was fun that they speed up for the solo section.

12. Decay of Salvation - Motorhead
Kinda hard to recognize, didn't translate well as death metal.

13. Black Witchery - Overkill
Good cover, and they wisely opted for a more faithful cover that sounds nothing like their own material.  Tempo seems a bit slower than the original.  I do appreciate they're the only band that even attempted to emulate Lemmy's vocals.

Ritual Carnage - I, Infidel (2005)

Cost: $1.99

Previously the only Ritual Carnage album I heard/owned was The Highest Law, so skipping right to this was quite a departure from that debut...especially with the vocals here. We'll get to that. Most of the death metal overtones and influences are gone, and the sound is slicker, cleaner, a bit more technical, and less overtly old school sounding.

I'm curious to know what the hell happened with the vocals. Let's not pretend otherwise--they're wimpy sounding. They're nasal and sound unnaturally high, like perhaps they were tinkered with/processed in some way, and then the delivery itself seems stilted. I suppose to a certain broad "weird vocals in thrash" degree they could be compared to Sean Killian's, but I don't mind the Vio-lence vocals that much. These are far more monotonous, distracting, and weird in a negative way.

The vocal style is so ridiculous I actually went to Youtube to listen to the 2nd and 3rd albums just to see if it was a gradual change or not. The vox on the 2nd album are like the debut. The Birth of Tragedy vocals shifted to a tough talk style, and while they don't have the highness, they do have that same somewhat artificial/overproduced feel.

The music itself pretty straightforward contemporary thrash, ie a modernized take on classic influences.  So it's not '80s emulation, but they haven't succumbed to groove or Panteraisms. A couple sections bring to mind newer/00s+ Sodom, with more intricate lead/solo work. It may be partially because of their shift to a cleaner production style, but in general this has a feeling similar to the better thrash reunion albums.  There's an obvious homage to "Hell Awaits" at 0:18 of the title track, and one of the riffs in "Twilight of the All Too Human" is a sped-up "War Ensemble" riff.

Divine Sin - Thirteen Souls (1997)

Cost: 99¢

Black Mark was responsible for some rather lame modern stuff in the '90s (Soulquake System probably being the biggest offender), but with two members in Mercyful Fate shirts here I wasn't terribly worried.  Don't recall if I had any particular musical expectations when buying this. 

Even though the core of the music is somewhat groovy thrash, I hear lots of death metal sensibilities in the guitarwork (not a big surprise considering the DM background of several members).  While I can easily see many of the riffs being used in death metal songs,  the band never actually crosses into being actual DM or even death/thrash.  The last few tracks are more straightforward thrash in a contemporary late '90s style--some grooviness, but nothing to an annoying degree.

The main vocals are gruff, but thankfully they're not aggro/toughtalk, nor are they full on DM-style vox.  The vocalist also often uses a deep, semi-operatic style which immediately brings to mind a less accomplished Messiah Marcolin.  It is interesting that when they're used, I get an immediate mournful Candlemass vibe, even though there's nothing particularly doomy about the guitar tone or music as a whole.

Mar. 28, 2016 finds

Pretty lame haul for all the time and effort.  Hit a place nearly two hours away which I'd been to twice before.  Their CDs are very cheap and they always have a pretty eclectic mix of stuff, although my purchases were a lot less interesting than the finds from previous visits.

Stopped at two more stores on the way back home that I seldom visit anymore, and turned up nothing at either.

45¢ each:

Age of Ruin - Autumn Lanterns
Metalcore.  Fair amount of Swedish melodic DM influence here with some of the guitar harmonies, which does help a little, but not as much as I would have hoped for.  Thankfully, no screamo/aggro vocals--the vox are a throaty, raspy style which would could easily pass for black metal vocals in another context.  Not that interesting.

Animosity - Shut it Down
Oh joy, another Tribunal disc.  Mix of death/grind and some -core influences (thankfully not in the vocals).  Aesthetically, this looks like a pure punk/HC release due to the stencil logo, molotov cocktail guy on the cover, and cops in riot gear inside the booklet.  So while not great, it did exceed my expectations a little.

Congress - Blackened Persistance
Already found this several years ago in another bargain bin, so trade fodder.  Stuff like this is much more deserving of the metalcore label than the breakdown happy stretched earlobe crowd.  I'm not that into it, but I will say to their credit that a) there are some solid thrash riffs to be found here and b) the vocals here are hoarser and a bit less shouty compared to other HC bands.  So while I can appreciate their metallic influences, at the end of the day it's not really my thing and I'd get much more out of listening to a good full-on thrash album.

Dodd - Dodd (1998)
Initially I was very excited because I had seen this band mentioned online as having Powermad members.  Unfortunately it's nu-metal rock with rap-style vocals.  For the second half of the CD they seem to drop the rapped vocals and a lot of the more angst-y chugga chugga stuff, but it just comes off as some sort of dark alternative rock.

Dodd himself drummed for Powermad briefly and appeared on that single song they released after their long hiatus.  Unfortunately I happened to look at the band lineup and Powermad guitarist Todd Haug played on this garbage.  What a letdown.

Fields of the Nephilim - One More Nightmare/Darkcell AD CD-single 
Trade fodder.  New/reworked versions of "Trees Come Down" and "Darkcell" from their debut EP.  This is the first time I've ever heard any of their newer material, and these versions are vastly different from the 80s goth rock of the originals.  They have a modernized industrialized sound and utilize vocal effects.

Sepultura - Choke CD-single
Title track, Bad Brains cover, and demo version of "Against."

Trial of the Bow - Ornamentation 
Trade fodder.  Ambient take on world music.  I like Disembowelment, but this does nothing for me.

Urn - Dancing with the Demigods
Gothic metal, although some of the songs have a strong folk metal feel (normally when they break out the flute and/or acoustic guitars).  The main male vocals are very off-putting.

$2.00 each:

Avignon - Regression into Animal 
Indie with nothing conclusively identifying the style.  I was hoping for more from the skull on the cover, but unfortunately, this is just Pantera-influenced aggrocore.

The Antiprism - The Antiprism (2009)

Cost: $2.00

 

This was part of a quite eclectic 5 disc haul (from 2014, I think) which included Mach II, Endless Blizzard, the 2nd Doomraiser album, and Excruciation - [t]horns. If I remember correctly, I had grabbed the other 4 discs and then went back to see if I had missed anything. I took a chance on this since it was sealed, not really knowing what it was.

Let me immediately say that the CD is far better than it looks like it will be. I was prepared to expect more experimental/avant-garde stuff (the liner notes have tambourine and xylophone credits, but thankfully these are only in part of the song "Moonlight Overdrive"). The band members also all wear cloaks, which bring to mind a certain  drone band they are thankfully nothing like. 

Initially the first 2 tracks had me thinking this would be primarily black metal-based, but with varied influences--there's a mid-paced part in the opening track that reminds me of the verse sections of Carnivore's "Race War." But after that, Celtic Frost influence started kicking in, and this gets especially heavy on the second half of the album. So to summarize, think guitars (and to a certain extent the vocals) with some black metal stylings, largely doomy and mid-paced riffage (with some stoner rock sensibilities in leads and solos), and plenty of Mr. Warrior's influence in many songs.

My only complaint is about the annoying female vocals provided by the drummer, which are overly exaggerated rasping. Thankfully they aren't in every song, but they're a little too prevalent to just dismiss as backing vocals. She's married to the vocalist/guitarist, which makes me wonder if she used that leverage to have some extra needless input.

June 22, 2013 finds

What's the best remedy for two days of rather unspectacular finds? Going out CD hunting and scoring big the very next day. Due to the sheer variety of good stuff, I'm tempted to rank this as one of my top 5 bargain bin hauls of all time. A lot of more underground titles in a bigger concentration than I normally see, and lots of nice collection fillers to round out the haul.

A dollar each:

Anagnorisis - Overton Trees
This one was brand spankin' new--no shrink wrap, but it still had that barcode sticky strip across the top.  The first half of the album is fast-paced black/death with occasional keyboard use.   Well-played and fine for what it is, but nothing particularly special that makes it memorable.  For the second half, by no means do they abandon the black/death ship, but there's more of a concentrated effort to add atmosphere and depth to the music beyond the keyboard use.  Some slower tempos, slightly progressive parts, and short acoustic/piano parts are used, and the music becomes less monotonous than in the first half of the CD.  However, the title track and one other song utilize very Opeth-like clean vocal sections...the mellowness didn't really bother me, but I felt since they were used so sparsely they felt a bit out of place and tended to overshadow everything else.  Indeed, a couple minutes after listening to the CD, I could not have remembered a specific riff to save my life, but the style of clean vocal passages sort of stuck with me.  So a comparatively minor element of the band's sound was all that really stood out, although that's more than I can say for many bands.

Ironically, when I saw this I felt a weird sense of familiarity even though I was sure I'd never heard the band before.  Then I realized I had previously read Teeth of the Divine's bargain bin review.  They scored it for 99¢, which I was mildly envious of at the time, so it was oddly fulfilling to snag a cheap copy of my own.

The Autumn Offering - Fear Will Cast No Shadow
Metalcore.  Very melodic death metal inspired, but unfortunately they dilute things with breakdowns.  The main vocals are growly with additional raspier vocals.  That's not so bad.   But the band throws in quite a few sections of whiny clean vocals along with clean choral background vocals that would be a better fit for something more emo or in a mainstream modern rock band.  I presume these parts are there to create musical contrast, but it's done in such a heavy-handed and awful manner.  I wasn't exactly excited about anything this band had to offer in the first place, and the clean vocals just killed it for me.  It's too little, too late to save the proceedings, but I'll also mention that Ralph Santolla and Carpharnaum's Jason Suecof do some guest soloing on the final track. 

Black Arrows of Filth & Impurity - 1984 (Eternal)
The "real" material on the CD (well, at least the music that defines the band) is noisy, spastic death/grind.  The last two super-long tracks are filled with droning, feedback-laden stuff. 

Black Oath - Black Oath
Well, this one completely shattered my expectations, and in a great way.  Based on the band name and Christophe Szpajdel logo replete with pentagram, horns, and hooves, I was fully expecting this to be black metal--probably of the generic sort.  But it's classic doom metal!  No stoner or drone crap to be found.  I did look up their place of origin beforehand, but even if I hadn't, I think the vocals would have given them away as Italians...They have an obvious accent and high, almost mournful timbre...They reminded me of Black Hole's vocals to a certain extent, though I must stress the music has nowhere near the amount of Black Hole's creepy weirdness or '70s/psychedelic influence.  There is an underlying dismalness to the music which may indeed be an Italian trait of sorts, seeing as it's shared by such disparate bands as Black Hole, Mortuary Drape, old Death SS, even some Necrodeath.  What I like most is that the band avoid being monotonous thanks to something taught to us all by Trouble and Candlemass--the best doom metal is made by playing fast at times.  The fast part of "Black Initiation" and the accompanying guitar solo (played by Mortuary Drape's Seeker of the Unknown) are excellent.  Great little mCD, one of the best finds on this trip.

Fektion Fekler - From Here to Heaven
Electro-industrial stuff.  Got this for the trade pile.

Grave - ...And Here I Die...Satisfied
I remember the days when bargain bins were a goldmine for early '90s death metal, but for the past several years those finds have been very sparse.  So while it was nice to find this, I admittedly wasn't super excited since I've already owned this mCD for years (and yes, that copy was also a buck!).  Otherwise this would have easily been the best disc from the haul.

In Ruins - Four Seasons of Grey 
Mix of doom/death and gothic metal.

Iowaska - Vine of Souls
Got this solely because I saw it was on Alternative Tentacles and thought it would make good trade fodder.  The label, anarchy circle-A in the logo, and abundance of dreadlocked bandmembers made me think this was going to be Crass-style anarcho-punk or crust, and certainly, that's an element in the music, but it also gets far weirder.  The first couple of songs are very psychedelic and spacy-sounding hardcore punk; at times the punk element is overwhelmed and becomes minimal.  Then starting at track 6, there are a couple of straightforward anarcho-punk tunes.  Oh yeah, I should add that the frontwoman is female--her vocals retain her strong British accent but thankfully there are no "extreme" female vocals, which I usually loathe.  For the purposes of this blog, it should be pointed out that there's some heaviness at times, but no more so than any regular anarcho-punk band (there's a sketchy Allmusic review that calls this metal. Huh.).  Not a fan of this stuff.

While I appreciate good lyrics, normally a band's beliefs have a pretty minimal impact on my opinion of their music.  I wouldn't have minded had the band stayed in typical leftist punk pastures, and the disc does have some anti-cop and anti-war tunes on it, par for the course.  But there are also some pagan and feminist lyrics that just take things to eye-rolling levels.  One song mentions that there's no need from support from either a man or a bra, since both can be bought.   Seriously?  The last track is a spoken anti-war piece, and afterwards there's a hidden spoken word track describing African female genital mutilation.  I found myself hoping music would start suddenly and it would turn into a grindcore song.   

Opera IX - The Call of the Wood
Original Miscarriage press, without a doubt the prime find of the day. I will admit this is a case where I was more excited about finding something for just a dollar than the actual music (which is fine for what it is, though)--black metal usually makes up a relatively small percentage of my local bargain bin finds, so it's always nice to find some, especially older releases like this.

Ozzy Osbourne - Tribute
Older CBS press (I already have the 2002 reissue).  Was a little surprised to find this--in all my years of CD browsing, this is the very first time I've seen a pre-Zakk era Ozzy CD in a bargain bin.  Nothing wrong with it condition-wise either, so it wasn't put in there for being a beat up copy.  It's just now after getting this I've realized that with the "Dee" outtakes, every song from the first album is on here.  Huh.

Redencion 9-11 - 97-01
Hardcore punk from Chile. Trade fodder.

Serberus - Descension
Melodic black/death.  I have their earlier CD so it was nice to find this for a buck.  Well worth the dollar as collection filler.

Solarized - Driven
Stoner rock. 

Undor - I
The very first disc of that day's soon-to-be rather sizeable stack.  Truthfully, even if I hadn't found anything else at all, I would have been pretty happy just to get a Bestial Burst release for a buck.  Based on the layout alone, I was fully expecting raw black metal.  Instead, I get a single slow, plodding tempo for the duration of the entire single 27+ min. track, guitar feedback everywhere, and hysterical shrieking/howling vocals that tiptoe the line between demented and exaggeratedly comical.  A very fitting comparison would be a lo-fi version (due to the lack of extra musical effects) of the first 2 Abruptum albums.  The music itself is quite similar, and I would assume their goal is exactly the same--making cacophonous music on purpose to evoke a crazy, evil atmosphere.  This largely succeeds, though there's one flaw--in comparison, Abruptum's music (heh) is much more unstructured as a whole, since they would often go out on weird tangents or segue into more ambient stuff (and I still find them tedious at times).  With Undur, the same plodding riff and drum beat essentially lasts for the entire mCD-length running time, with spontaneity only provided by the feedback and vocals.  That said, the band would probably be pleased that I found this monotonous after a while.

Vanderhoof - Vanderhoof
This is a side project of Metal Church's Kurdt Vanderhoof which I've wanted to check out for a while, and even came close to buying online a few times, but never did.  Rather than metal, the bulk of this is '70s style hard rock with a Hammond organ, ala Deep Purple or Uriah Heep.   Some songs sound more authentically '70s than others (there are some decidedly non-'70s grooves thrown in at times), and likewise, the heaviness varies--at times the guitars are quite heavy but there's not much here that can be unfalteringly classified as heavy metal.  There is also a very well done cover of Deep Purple's "Burn" which is more interesting than any of the band's original material.  There's nothing inherently wrong with this CD and I could praise them for being inspired to do music like this, but I can't see myself revisiting this.  I'd rather just listen to an actual '70s band to get my fix of the style.

Waifle - And The Blood Will Come Down Like a Curtain
Expected this to be pissed-off hardcore, but it's more like some sort of dark and chaotic emo.  The music itself isn't very metallic, but the first track had a sort of discordance that reminded me of black metal, especially with the vocals. 

Various - The Heralds of Oblivion Vol. 1
Because one can never have too many copies...

Various - Infernal Gathering - The Second Chapter
A compilation of bands from Inferno Festival (bands that played at the fest, not actual live recordings from the fest). Ironically, the two tracks marked exclusive (by Dimension F3H and Pawnshop) are the two least metallic tracks here. The only reason I got this was for 1349's cover of "Haunting the Chapel," which I had no idea was even on CD or available somewhere besides the double-LP version of Beyond the Apocalypse (it's not listed as an exclusive track). Very good cover even considering the black metal vocals are a big step down from Araya's, and it goes without saying that I prefer the cover to any of 1349's original material.

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.

2015 finds

Originally this was going to be a post about my Sept. 30, 2015 finds, but I mixed some CDs from subsequent trips in together with that stack.  So screw it, this will just be a general late 2015 finds post.  A buck each unless otherwise noted:

Apocalyptica - How Far CD-single
Single with 4 versions of "Quutamo" (the instrumental and 3 vocal versions in different languages).  Not a particularly heavy song even by Apocalyptica standards, but the music is catchy.  The vocal versions are superfluous, which is the case with all Apocalyptica material I've heard that has vocals.  The singing always tends to be a distraction from the whole concept of emulating guitar-based song structure with cellos.

Arena - Contagious 
Progressive rock EP.   It's been ages since I've heard them, but this seems a little heavier and less Marillion-y than their earlier material.  Still not my cup of tea, so to the trade pile it goes.

Bad Wizard - Free and Easy
Retro rock. The band name (and to a lesser extent, the look of the CD) scream stoner rock, but the major influence here is MC5 and the late '60s/early '70s Michigan rock scene in general.  Last track has a very AC/DCish feel.

D.C. Cooper - self-titled
Diverse album with power metal/melodic metal, hard rock, and progressive metal oriented material.  The guy is a great vocalist but I've never been overwhelmed by any of the bands he's been involved with.  This is more varied than his work with either Royal Hunt or Silent Force and doesn't seem as immediately engaging.  The cover of Uriah Heep's "Easy Livin'" is alright but I prefer the more faithful W.A.S.P. version. 

Devian - Ninewinged Serpent
Saw this in the $2.50 bin and waited for it to be marked down.  Black/death with Legion on vox.  I keep seeing this described as having a strong thrash component or being thrashy, which I think is a huge overexaggeration--there may be some thrashy parts here and there but I think the faster sections owe a lot more to older melodic death metal than to thrash.  Left no lasting impression on me, but worth the buck.

Die Happy - Volume II
I was hoping for some trace of the Vengeance Rising sound, but unfortunately this is groove-laden hard rock.  The style reminds me of the de-glammed early '90s output of a lot of the hair bands.

Embercrow - Blacklight Wanderers
Melancholic/gothic rock.  They wait until halfway through the album to bring out limited guttural vox--there's a death/doom part in track 5, and then they're used again on track 9 which feels more like typical gothic doom.  Ultimately this seems to fall in a genre-straddling grey area.  While the distorted guitars push this towards metal and away from typical gothic rock, I don't think it really has enough characteristics to be classified as metal overall.

Fear Factory - Live on the Sunset Strip
3-track live EP, all songs are from Archetype.  Never cared about the band, and this doesn't encourage me to start.

Genghis Tron - Dead Mountain Mouth
Like Opeth before they went full progressive rock or any number of modern bands, this band's gimmick is the juxtaposition of extreme and non-extreme musical styles that are typically considered incongruous.  In this case they mix heavier stuff (mostly blasting grindcore) with various types of minimalist electronica.

As the album goes on it really suffers from lowest common denominator syndrome where there are all sorts of various hardcore, metal, and post-rock influences thrown in without any coherence.  The track "White Walls" even has a brief intro riff that sounds very black metal (unfortunately it lasts all of 7 seconds).  So rather than being some sort of oddball electronica-infused grindcore, the band just cycles through a mishmash of stuff, which some morons will no doubt defend as "open-minded" and "progressive."

All of the vocals are hysterical grind screaming (I actually expected a band like this to foray into more varied/oddball vocals) which gets annoying.  Because of this I was able to give the instrumental track "Warm Woods" a more attentive listen.  It came off a little bit better than the other material, but
ultimately this comes off as a contrived effort to be weird and unique just to attract gawkers and musically spastic rubbernecks.

Golden Dawn - The Art of Dreaming
This is the Napalm rerelease from 2003.  At first, I didn't even realize this was a reissue of the first album due to the new cover, which is an interesting concept but looks like it should be on some gothic band's album (I should add that the original cover isn't really any better).

Fast-paced black metal with lots of atmospheric intros and interludes.  These vary in style, but the majority of them are epic or martial sounding symphonic pieces.  As a comparison to other Austrian Black Metal Syndicate bands, many of these passages would have fit well with Summoning's music (Dol Guldur/Nightshade Forests era) and they are somewhat similar to a few of the more epic Pazuzu tracks, minus the darkwave influences and spoken word stuff.  As I said though, these sections are varied--for example, the intro to "Sub Specie Aeternitatis" quickly turns into EDM.

Unlike the later Golden Dawn albums where there was more integration and mixing of metal/non-metal elements, I like that for the most part, the black metal sections and atmospheric sections are kept distinct and separate here, yet are both done well.

Guapo - Black Oni
No familiarity with the band whatsoever--bought this solely because it was on Ipecac and I figured I could trade it.  An extremely dark take on Mellotron-infused '70s prog rock, with some passages even bordering on dark ambient.   Interesting stuff.

(In certain ways this reminds me of what I envisioned Goblin to sound like before I actually heard them.  With their horror movie soundtrack pedigree, I expected something quite evil and haunting, maybe even a sort of embryonic Death SS/Black Hole style.  Instead, most of Goblin's material was rather upbeat and in the vein of comparatively "normal" prog).

Mattsson - Another Dimension
As with the D.C. Cooper album above (of course, I got them in the same trip), extremely varied album.  I guess it's easiest to classify it as progressive metal overall, although with a neoclassical/shred edge due to Mattsson's guitar playing, as well as more power metallish and hard rock influences.  Björn Lodin on vocals here, and I'm certainly not the first to compare the raspiness of his voice to Rod Stewart.

Meat Hook - Order of the Dragon
No clear indication of what this was.  Initially I was inclined to think industrial/ambient/gothic due to the band name, album title, and Vlad the Impaler bio on the booklet's back cover.  It looked like there was a chance of metal, as all three bandmembers are longhairs, but there's also a song called "Funky Butt Lovin."  I went ahead and gambled on it, but it turns out this is groovy hard rock from '95.  Some heavy guitar here and there, but no metal to be found.

Queens of the Stone Age - Go with the Flow CD-single 
Never really checked them out before, so this is the first time I've seriously listened to them.  I was expecting this to be very Kyuss-like due to the participation of a certain ex-member.  Unfortunately it's not, so this ends up being trade fodder.

Thought Industry - Black Umbrella
Have yet to hear the band's first album (fingers crossed it shows up in the bargain bins), but it sounds like it's thrashy enough to interest me.  This, on the other hand, is weird, multi-influenced, proggy alt. rock.  No thanks.

Tokyo Dragons - Give Me the Fear
The cool comic-style artwork enticed me to check this out.  Wasn't quite sure where on the rock spectrum this would fall.  It's retro style hard rock.  I think they miss out on a lot of opportunities to make the music interesting. They're not horrible, but there's no reason to choose this over the myriad of superior albums available.  '70s hard rock is the clear influence here, but they don't emulate the '70s sound to such an overt degree that it becomes a point of interest (except perhaps for "Let It Go"--I don't like the song, but it stands out as being extremely Kiss-like).  It's not dirty or heavy enough to be appealing in a metallic way, but it's not catchy or anthemic enough to be appealing in a commercial way.  The best song here is easily "Teenage Screamers" for its total Motörhead intro and cool solo section (this CD is in dire need of more Thin Lizzy style harmonized twin guitar attacks).  Following track "Ready or Not" is also pretty Motörheadish.  Still, not impressed enough to want to hang on to this.

Shock Rock Hellions - A Tribute to W.A.S.P. (2006)

Most of this makes Dwell's Show No Mercy tribute CD look great, with poor vocal peformances abound.  Rather surprised no one took a stab at "I Wanna Be Somebody."

1. Dracena - Animal (Fuck Like a Beast)
Fine musically--I think this song is actually well suited for a more extreme cover.  However, it's immediately obvious the vocals are female and they bring things down tremendously.

2. Denial of God - Hellion
First, let me say I have always wished this band's music was better.  Tornado was a consistently good 'zine, they made some interesting lyrical theme and cover song choices, and I agree with most of the viewpoints presented in their interviews.  Unfortunately, the majority of their music strikes me as mediocre black metal, and they show a disturbing lack of metal sense sometimes (ie pictures on the first mCD).

Anyway, this is a simplified version of my favorite W.A.S.P. song with unenthusiastic BM vocals.

3. Stos - L.O.V.E. Machine
Disappointing coming from such a veteran band.  The tempo is slightly slower and makes everything seem off, and the heavily accented vocals are very distracting.

4. Holy Death - Running Wild in the Streets
Seems to have good potential at first, but once those vocals start...I'm not big on the original's vocals, but the croaking/growling here just doesn't work.

5. Ceremonial Castings - Sleeping in the Fire
Starts out corny, with the vocals at the beginning sounding like someone trying to parody a male with a deep voice.  Becomes a black metal cover which isn't great but at least feels more enthusiastic than some of the other offerings.  It seems like the guitar solos were played on synth, which I was initially going to scoff at, but they're pretty faithfully played and I'll fully admit that it's a wiser choice than attempting a bad guitar version.

6. Blackies - Rock and Roll to Death
This is an Italian W.A.S.P. cover band, so musically the cover is very good even though it's later W.A.S.P. material I don't care about.  Unfortunately, this is also an Italian W.A.S.P. cover band with shrill female vocals.

7. Victimizer - Tormentor
Serviceable extreme metal version.   Nothing particularly special though, so it's very telling when this is still one of the best songs on the tribute.

8. This Tangled Web - The Headless Children
Fantastic interpretation musically.  I think they were going for a doom/death version but it definitely brings Tony Martin-era Sabbath to mind.  On the downside, the main vocals are a bit too croaky and hoarse, making me wish they had just used generic DM or BM vocals.

9. Impaler - On Your Knees
Rise of the Mutants had snotty, punkish vocals which were pretty tolerable there.  Here they've morphed into lameness with a silly hickish inflection to boot (this should have been listed as "On Yo' Knees").

10. Captain T & Ostronomy - The Real Me
Yeah, technically a cover of The Who (at least the liner notes correctly credit Pete Townshend).  The vocals have a definite Paul Stanley vibe to them, although the singer throws in some exaggerated over the top mannerisms which mimic what Blackie does even though he doesn't sound like him.  This has much more of a freewheeling rock'n'roll atmosphere than the W.A.S.P. version.  As a The Who cover it's pretty good.

11. Crystal Viper - Wild Child
Overall, pretty good, although it's sorely missing the rawness of Blackie's voice.

12. Exekrator - The Flame
Has those stupid shrill vocals a lot of their own material suffers from, which make this sound like a parody version.