Evil Bitch - Sin and Pleasure (2015)

 

Cost: $2.00 

This was quite a bit more meh than I was expecting for old school-styled stuff, especially with a Kat shirt on display. Two girls and a drummer playing simple, slightly-evilized-Motörhead metal. It's inoffensive, but nothing that killer either. One major issue rears its head immediately with the silly intro and is the same problem I have with bands like Demona--the heavily accented female vocals sound weak and rob a lot of potential power from the music. Speaking of Demona, would I classify Evil Bitch as speed metal? Not as a whole, unless you classify anything with a somewhat fast tempo influenced by Motörhead as speed metal (I don't). If someone were to call individual tracks like "Witch of Satan" and "Sinner" speed metal, I wouldn't put up any argument.  But make no mistake--this fails to even reach Acero Letal levels, let alone the terminal velocities of classic Agent Steel or Living Death.

By the way, the claw hands of the bishop on the cover art made me think of a Playmobil figure (a quick search confirms Playmobil did indeed make a St. Nicholas figure with a crosier at some point).

Dirty Lust - Dirty Lust (1998)

 

Cost: $3.00 

Threw this in with an online order as a cheapo add-on.  It was listed as "stoner metal."  Uh, okay...

Initially, I was mentally classifying this as some kind of strange mellow groove metal during the first two tracks, although I think overall it's most accurate to call it some kind of hard alternative or alternative metal. I realize that label itself doesn't really mean much.  One track has a saxophone part--they're that kind of band. The riffing is very groovy and bouncy, but most of it isn't particularly hard-hitting music, and with no real aggro vocals, someone expecting Pantera/Machine Head type stuff would probably be disappointed. And yes, while they are instances where the guitar tone and a groovy riff might be reminiscent of some sort of stoner metal, as a whole I suspect this would be very disappointing for someone looking for the standard sounds of that genre.

Most of this feels very unfocused, with odd musical tangents that feel silly, and not in an amusingly off the wall way as in something like Scatterbrain.  I will say to their credit, despite the year of release and one member's Rage Against the Machine shirt, this avoids most nu pitfalls aside from some overly bouncy riffs that are thankfully uncommon. The vocalist has a heavily accented, somewhat warbly default, but also seems fond of experimenting with various vocal histrionics (he even occasionally belts out some deep vox which remind me of Chuck Billy's guttural stuff from '80s/'90s Testament!) and using effects/distortion (sometimes this vaguely reminds me of Death SS, oddly). I wouldn't classify the singing itself as crappy per se, but the vocal style doesn't lend itself to me taking Dirty Lust seriously at all.

Highlights are few.  "The Century of Superstition" is an actual foray into doomy/stoner fare, and while it stands out positively among the other material here, it's not terribly impressive either. There's an extremely brief "brutal" section in "I Saw And Angel Last Night" [sic] and some cacophonous stuff at the very end of the album which make me think the musicians would do a capable job in an actual death or grind band. 

Based on where I bought this, I think it's safe to assume the "stoner metal" tag was just a quick, lazy descriptor rather than any sort of malicious deceit. But it's a lot more appealing and marketable calling this that than whatever it actually is.  It certainly worked on me!

Disassociate - Imperfect World (2000)

 

Cost: $1.00

Okay grindcore, alternating between punkier HC-influenced material and relentless blasting, with a smattering of dirgier/sludgier parts. Nothing particularly bad but 34 minutes of this stuff was fairly underwhelming, and admittedly, as someone not super into exploring all the niches of grind, I can't see picking this over Terrorizer or Assück.  The intros/interludes here tend to be more electic than your typical audio sample intro (although there is indeed a short clip of Bill Clinton), but since these are generally not directly integrated into the music, they don't really come off as an overly experimental band. I found track 6 slightly more notable than the rest because towards the end it segues into a VERY black metal sounding riff. There are also two covers here, "Fallout" by Nausea (NY) and "Bad Science" by Jesus Chrust (the NY crust band the Disassociate singer was in, not the Charlie Infection band who released EPs on Fudgeworthy Rec.). These covers feel more inspired and energetic than the original material here. Still, purely as a dollar bin grind CD, I'm satisfied with what I got.

Diamond Head - To Heaven from Hell (1997)

Cost: $2.00

My bargain bin history with Diamond Head goes back around 25 years, as I fondly remember finding the '90s Metal Blade reissues of Lightning to the Nations and Behold the Beginning for $2 each on a CD hunting trip. As far as I remember, that was the first time I ever found actual NWOBHM in a local bargain bin, which unfortunately has been a pretty rare occurrence over the years.

This is an EP with demos/early versions of "Dead Reckoning" and 4 ...Borrowed Time tracks. In the case of the latter, the songs feel slightly more similar to the sonic approach of the first album and its accompanying EP tracks. They're fun to hear, but it's not like the refined album versions aren't great too. The early long version of "Dead Reckoning" is probably the best track here, although it sounds like they were still hammering out the lyrics for the second and third verses. Awesome find.

Freaklabel - Monolith (2007)

Cost: $2.00

I was mildly pleased to find that this CD was better than what the band photos and nu-metallish bandname suggested, but for the purposes of this blog that's still very relative--it's not something I would voluntary pick over the thousands of better musical options available.

The band mixes groove metal with melodeath, thrash, and metalcore elements. While I'm not a big fan of the more modern influences, they're not quite as overdone as in other bands of the style, and with the presence of actual song variety and some decent riffage, I have to acknowledge their compositional skill as being better than similar bands. 

...Of course, any positives are ruined by the forced aggro vocals. "Leader of Disaster" (or at least the first part) in particular would have had so much potential with some actual vicious thrash or death vocals, but the strained Pantera vox just make me lose interest. Not as bottom of the barrel as breakdown-happy metalcore or Vulgar Display of Power emulation, sure, but nothing to get excited about either.

Destruction Evolution - Relentless (2010)

 

 Cost: $2.00

Initially the band name had me thinking modern thrash or groove metal, although some quick online research revealed it to be...SOUTHERN METAL. I realize it's quite a nebulous umbrella term that can be used for music that ranges from stoner rock to sludge, but typically I tend not to be into the kinds of bands that use it as a descriptor. I can give something a fair shot for 2 bucks though.

The majority of the disc feels like a mix of Alice in Chains (largely due to the vocals) and the rockier stuff of both Black Label Society and CoC (I consider CoC to be the standard Southern metal influence, so this isn't too far off from what I initially imagined). The issue I have is that while the music is arguably heavy because of the guitar tone and low end, it's too rocking and bouncy and rarely feels very metal at all. The title track has some decent Sabbathy vibes and they start to venture into actual doom territory on "Voodoo Vibe," but with all of the other influences here even the high points are a bit underwhelming.  Guitarwork is good for what it is and I greatly prefer the singer to Zakk Wylde (though not Layne Staley), but overall not my kind of thing.

Punish My Heaven - First Punishment (2010)

Cost: $1.00

Ultimately this was about what I expected, though I won't deny deep down I may have had faint hopes of potential based on the band name. Rather than classic Dark Tranquillity worship, this is quite groovy and aggro melodeath with forced HC vocals. In fact, most of the time, the amount of metalcore influence present here makes me think of something like Caliban (though with far more melodeath and modern thrash influences) rather than any '90s Gothenburg stuff.  Since this was just a buck, I'm not terribly disappointed, I just doubt I'll be inclined to ever listen to this again.