Mastery - Lethal Legacy (2006)

Cost: $1.00

I usually see this described as instrumental thrash--don't want to be purposefully finicky with semantics here, but vocal-less thrash may be a better descriptor.  As far as I understand, the band was open to having a vocalist but just didn't find the right one, as opposed to a band forming with the intent of being an instrumental act.  After listening, it definitely sounds like the material was written with a vocalist in mind rather than composed as some sort of instrumental metal EP, though obviously I wasn't privy to the recording process.

The music itself is fairly aggressive modern thrash, and while competent, the musicianship isn't dazzling enough to make up for the lack of vocals.  It's a slippery slope, because I generally DON'T like instrumental metal forays (beyond the individual song here and there) because they tend to get overly progressive or avant-garde.  It feels like they just took the vocals out of the formula without compensating for the loss--by the time the CD was only about half over, it was a struggle for me to concentrate on the music.  It was certainly worth the dollar I paid, as they don't make any major missteps, and ultimately, it's an ok release. However, the reality of the situation is that this is a listening option competing against literally thousands and thousands of other thrash recordings.

When they did get a vocalist for their full-length, it was...Billy Milano! Haven't heard it, but hopefully I'll snag it from a bargain bin as well someday. Admittedly, the idea of him on vocals isn't terribly appealing.

Oh yeah, should add that the booklet is die-cut in the shape of the band logo (when folded up, the front logo is showing through two layers of paper).  I've seen die-cut CD inserts a few times before, but this is probably the most intricate design. Seems like a needless layout extravagance, especially given the rather generic fiery background cover art, but hey, it held my interest for 15 seconds when I saw it.

Humiliation - Battalion (2014)

Cost: $2.00

I was very excited to find this so cheaply, and this crushes the majority of my usual bargain bin finds musically.  Outside the context of the bargain bin, it's still a solid release, but not fantastic.  Bolt Thrower is the main reference point here, though they don't quite sound as close as a lot of the reviews I've read would have you believe.  Imagine a distillation of Bolt Thrower's '90s output (they bypass the grindy/chaotic stuff of the first two albums completely) passed through a musically simplified, mid-paced filter, and you're pretty close.  I liked the album before this one a lot more, as it threw in some slower tempo-ed stuff, reminiscent of both old UK doom/death and the gloomy atmospheres on some of the old Sunlight DM.  Here it's almost exclusively mid-paced, with few exceptions.  The material here doesn't completely overcome the lack of variety.

Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman

Cost: $2.00

This is the old Jet Records press (previously I only had the 1995 and rightfully loathed 2002 remasters).  I picked this up at a thrift store, and was rather surprised that it was clean and in pretty good condition.  "S.A.T.O." is my favorite Ozzy song ever, and "Over the Mountain" and "Flying High Again" are okay, but I've never found the rest of the album to be very interesting.

Thrashing Like a Maniac compilation (2007)

Cost: 99¢

At first I was super excited to find this, since retrothrash hardly ever shows up in dollar bins.  Then reading the tracklist was kind of disappointing...It looked like it might be all previously released stuff, and I was hoping for unreleased material or more obscure/unsigned bands.  Of course I bought it anyway, and I felt better when I went through the booklet and saw there were a couple EP/demo tracks.  Some general observations:

1.) Like it or not, it does cover almost all of the heavy hitters of the US retrothrash scene at the time...Only Havok and perhaps Vektor are noticeably absent.

2.) In general, the quality of the vocals is weak across the board.  Not horrible in most cases, just weak.  No really vicious Morbid Saint or Kreator style vocals, and on the other end of the spectrum, no clean classic HM-styled vocals.  Suprisingly, not even any Araya or Souza emulators.  At best, there are a couple attempts at Schmier-ish shrieks with mixed results.

3.) In several cases the songs seemed to come off better here individually than on the actual releases they're taken from.  Unfortunately, I think that's because a lot of the bands don't have a tremendous amount of variety in their songwriting, so tracks stand out on their own more positively than on an album with several other similar tracks.

1. Bonded By Blood - Immortal Life
Okay, not great.  Quality-wise, middle of the pack compared to the rest of the CD.

2. Evile - Thrasher
One of their better songs despite the corny circle pitting lyrics.  As cliche as it sounds, mixes classic Metallica and Slayer influences well.

3. Municipal Waste - The Art of Partying
Not a fan.  The Brecht-like vocals worked well on their first album when they were doing the raw old-D.R.I. type thing, but they sound kinda lame on their thrashier material.

4. Dekapitator - Deathstrike Command
One of the more violent sounding tracks on here musically, but could have used more OTT or aggression in the vocals.  There's an attempt at a Sheepdog scream in the middle, but it just isn't enough for me.

5. Fueled by Fire - Massive Execution
No complaints here.  Again, this seems a little better than I remember their debut album being.

6. Decadence - Corrosion
Ironically, this sounds worse than I remember the 3rd Stage of Decay album being!  Grooviest and least old school sounding track on the album (to be fair, in the context of the entire genre they're not all that modern, but here they stick out).  Very forced vocals, like a higher pitched version of Sabina on the later Holy Moses stuff.  Worst track on here.  They even replaced this with a Crucifier track on the Japanese CD, which really should have been the case on all versions.

7. Warbringer - Total War
Yeah, these vocals are more like it!  One of the better tracks on here.  

8. SSS - Overload
For some reason I thought these guys were overly modern/hardcore influenced stuff like Stampin' Ground, but I was pleasantly surprised by raging crossover thrash.  Extra points for the Scum samples.

9. Gama Bomb - Zombi Brew
Good but doesn't change my relatively neutral opinion of them.  Never found them to be as fantastic as some hype them up to be, but I'm not bothered by their humor either.

10. Merciless Death - Exumer
Comes the closest to sounding like authentic '80s thrash in terms of sound and production, which is obviously a huge plus.  However, suffers from the same problem as all their material I've heard--solid music, but unenthusiastic vocals.

11. Deadfall - Resistance is Futile
Vocals remind me a bit of the deeper vox of Paul Arnold from At War, at least at first.

12. Lazarus - Last Breath
Okay track.  This is fairly modern sounding thrash compared to the other tracks.  Vocals seem a tad forced, but not enough to be bothersome.

13. Toxic Holocaust - War is Hell
Fine musically, but has those lethargic black metal vox with slight reverb that ruin a lot of their stuff for me.

14. Mutant - Psycho Therapy (actually "Psycho Surgery")
Quite good.  More towards the technical side of thrash than the other bands, which works well with the harsh vox.

15. Violator - Atomic Nightmare
As with the Merciless Death song, sounds considerably more like '80s thrash than the other tracks in terms of sound, and all the better for it.

16. Send More Paramedics - Twilight of the Flies
Rather punkish, especially with the semi-shouted vocals.  Not my cup of tea, but certainly more appealing than any metalcore the cutesy bandname might suggest.

John Arch - A Twist of Fate (2003)

Cost: 99¢

Take a wild guess as to which two bands the music made by three Fates Warning guys plus Mike Portnoy is going to sound most like.  Other than the admittedly strong selling point of having John Arch on vocals, this really isn't different enough from either later Fates Warning or Dream Theater for me to be very enthusiastic about it.  John's vocals are still in absolutely tremendous shape (see: Keep It True 2016), so it's disappointing he's only done more modern proggy stuff with Jim Matheos since his return, and nothing more in line with those classic first three Fates Warning albums.