Bonehunter - Sexual Panic Human Machine (2017)

 

Cost: $2.00

I rarely find Hells Headbangers releases in bargain bins and this showed up at a store that seldom has any kind of extreme metal, so I think I got a little too excited for this one. It's exactly how I feel about a lot of Hells Headbangers releases--solid but not great--and it was worth what I paid, but I can't help but feel a  little disappointed. Maybe the Ghoul and Venom patches combined with all the other circumstances inflated my expectations. 

This is a black/thrash with some punkiness mixed in. The ingredients for something I should probably like more are here (the vocals remind me quite a bit of Nifelheim), and while there are some cool parts (the title track is what I wish the whole album was more like), a lot of the songs kind of settle into a formulaic rut (usually mid-tempo). I wonder if it's too much contemporary black metal influence, as while it's not quite the soulless background music a lot of modern Scandinavian BM is, it doesn't leave much of a lasting impression with me. I've only heard a little bit of their previous material, but I remember the punk influences being wilder and filthier and the music being a little better for it.

The Showdown - Temptation Come My Way (2007)

 

Cost: $1.00

This was an older find I pulled out of storage, so I don't specifically recall if I bought this solely because it was cheap, or because the band was listed at Metal Archives. I've heard none of their other material. Before this they were apparently a metalcore band, and after this, they were some kind of groove/Southern metal. Unfortunately, it looks like they had commercial aspirations with this album and severely softened, as it's mostly (somewhat) heavied up rock, like something for the Ozzfest crowd.

The opening track has a groove riff and gang "HEY!" chants which deceived me into thinking the album might be Hellyeah/Black Label Society type stuff. Already it's got quite a rockish feel. The vocals generally sound more fitting for an alternative rock band, although he tends to add a lot of Hetfield inflections. The next two songs are unfortunately more representative of what the majority of the album is like--a mix of Pillar, Nickelback, Skillet, and Alter Bridge, mixed with varying amounts of Southern rock influences, heavier groove riffs, and some occasional metallic guitarwork.

There are a few exceptions. The upbeat "We Die Young" offers riffage closer to classic metal guitarwork and moves a bit closer to something like Avenged Sevenfold than the bands I previously mentioned. The quite decent solo section is probably as metal as the album ever gets. Then the title track has Pantera-influenced groove riffing combined with the singer at his most Hetfield-ish. It's not that interesting to me personally but I can't deny it feels more inspired than the alt. rock stuff. "Forget My Name" is more uptempo and sounds like it has more of a hair band/'80s hard rock influence, which again I don't necessarily want to hear, but in context is more appealing than the alternative. Literally.

The cover of Kansas' "Carry On Wayward Son" is easily the most interesting track out of everything, though it's only a competent cover, not an especially great one. The vocal style is a major shortcoming here. For the last track "Death Finds Us Breathing," at first I wasn't sure if the clean vocalled verses were the band reverting to a more emo side of their past, or were something more Creed/Alter Bridge inspired. Considering there's a breakdown with metalcore vox, I'm guessing the former.

There are certainly metal influences here, especially in the guitarwork, but having them alone does not a satisfying listen make. This is clearly music made to appeal to the hard alternative crowd.

Metallica - Master of Puppets

 

Cost: $2.00 

I'm a little late in getting around to writing about this one, and in the meantime, I actually found another copy of Master (an earlier press; this one is a later version since it amends the fanclub info with the Metallica website in the booklet) as well as a copy of Ride the Lightning and the bootleg I already covered. And while not pristine, all of them were in pretty good condition to boot. That would have been unthinkable even just a few years ago. For 25 years, the only '80s Metallica I ever even saw in a cheapo bin was a severely water damaged copy of AJfA (my local pawn shop also had an empty Kill 'Em All case on the shelf back when they were selling CDs for $3 a pop, but someone had swiped the disc).

Another album that I don't need to bother describing in any way, so I'll just give some brief thoughts.

Much like Reign in Blood, I think this album is terribly overrated compared to more underground stuff, but I like it more than I did when I initially heard it, and I get the impression I like it more than other people might think based on my personal tastes in metal. While there are some cool ideas here, in hindsight I think they were trying a bit too hard to shake metal stereotypes and be seen as more complex and proficient musicians. It's also quite long for an 8-song thrash album-- all of the 6+ min. songs could stand to have some fat trimmed. 

1. Battery

The first time I ever heard this, I thought of it rather negatively. Mellow acoustic intro leading into fast aggressive opening track? They already did that on "Fight Fire with Fire," and it's not even as good. I can appreciate the speed and aggression now, although I've always thought the chorus vocal patterns and gang vox felt kind of wonky.

2. Master of Puppets

Great. All that middle section stuff is kind of extraneous but it doesn't really bother me either.

3. The Thing That Should Not Be

Not bad, kind of feels like a precursor to some of the stuff on the self-titled album.

4. Welcome Home (Sanitarium)

Okay, though the balladish stuff isn't my favorite. I think it comes off better than "Fade to Black," at least.

5. Disposable Heroes

Always thought this was a severely underrated song--one of my favorite non-Kill 'Em All Metallica tracks.

6. Leper Messiah

I have no strong opinions on the track itself. It's not bad, it's not great, I just see it as mid-paced filler. I think it's got one of the better solos of the album, though.

7. Orion

I've been conditioned to like the middle part that they used for the credits of the Cliff 'Em All video after seeing it so much. But overall this feels like they were focused more on being progressive and less on writing killer tunes (foreshadowing the entire ...And Justice album, perhaps?). It's got enough substance where it's not as throwaway as "Anesthesia," but I'd much rather hear "Call of Ktulu."

8. Damage, Inc. 

They were good at the straightforward fast stuff, it's a shame it went severely downhill after this. This might have made a better opener than "Battery."

Probot - Probot (2004)

 

Cost: $2.00

Dave Grohl collaborating with his metal/crossover vocal idols. This is neither as consistently good as I had hoped nor as consistently bad as I feared. While I'm sure Dave liked the old material of these bands, very little here is going to scratch the classic metal itch. The less tailored-to-their-featured-vocalist tracks tend to default to Sabbath-inspired modern metal tropes which come across as lackluster. There's some decent stuff though, so not a bad find:

1. Centuries of Sin (w/ Cronos)

Not bad for modern groovier stuff, though I'm not sure how appealing I'd find it if Cronos was absent. Wouldn't sound too out of place on any post-Resurrection Venom album. When I listened through a second time, I was thinking how the fast end part is fairly similar to current Venom, but the rest of the track might even be more like a heavily modernized version of the Cronos solo stuff than anything Venom.

 

2. Red War (w/ Max Cavalera)

There's a recurring vocal effect (some sort of sample?) in a more homeboy nu-style, but the stop/start main riff and vaguely industrial feel remind me more of Chaos A.D. than anything Soulfly.

3. Shake Your Blood (w/ Lemmy) 

Here, it's quite pleasant as a simple Motörheadish track and perhaps stands out more positively than it should. The lack of a guitar solo feels weird, and I think even on the Motörhead albums from around the time this was recorded, it wouldn't be more than a middling track at best.

4. Access Babylon (w/ Mike Dean)

Not sure what people are hearing when they say this sounds like old CoC. It's very short and certainly punkier than any of the other tracks, but it feels more like Grohl trying to inject some punkiness into the default Probot songwriting style. The thick, polished sound and lack of energetic viciousness make this feel weird as "crossover." The vocals are my least favorite performance here and remind me quite a lot of Rage Against the Machine. Definitely one of my least favorite tracks.

Also should add, Alec Empire worked with Grohl on this track during the early stages of Probot, so it wasn't written with Mike Dean in mind. Alec even released his own version called "Tear It Down," which is the exact same music with different lyrics and vocals. His version sounds kind of like an Atari Teenage Riot track, which reinforces that the music is just sort of generically punky.

 

5. Silent Spring (w/ Kurt Brecht)

Probably the song where the music feels most disconnected from the singer's regular repetoire. Not a hint of DRI here, just the modern groovy stuff. Somewhat interesting to hear Kurt's vocals in this context, but otherwise not anything special.

 

6. Ice Cold Man (w/ Lee Dorrian)

Ironically, this sounds more like early Trouble than the Eric Wagner song, and I wouldn't be surprised if the intro is a direct tribute to "The Tempter." Best track on the CD by far.

 

7. The Emerald Law (w/ Wino)

Finally, some guitar soloing! Not my favorite, but Wino is a good fit and this feels a lot more lively and energetic than some of the other tracks. Fine for what it is.

 

8. Big Sky (w/ Tom G. Warrior)

No Frost here at all, just very industrialish and experimental Apollyon's Sun-type stuff. Disappointing but not that surprising given the time period. If I hadn't read the tracklist I probably would have assumed this was the Snake track at first.

 

9. Dictatosaurus (w/ Snake)

The liner notes specifically mention the first two Voivods, so of course this sounds like...mellower Angel Rat/Outer Limits style choruses coupled with Nothingface influences. Not to my taste but I have to admit this track actually sounds very much like Voivod.

 

10. My Tortured Soul (w/ Eric Wagner)

Not sure if it was a conscious decision, but that main lick is literally just Saxon's "Denim and Leather" slowed down. It feels weird in the context of fuzzed Sabbath worship but also makes it kinda awesome. Second best song on here.

11a. Sweet Dreams (w/ King Diamond) 

While not the worst performance, this has the most ill-fitting vocals. King is just not a good match with the bluesy riffs. The guitarwork and bluesiness here could have lifted the Lemmy track quite a bit, too. On a positive note, this made me genuinely curious what King Diamond style vocals would sound like in a traditional doom metal band.

11b. I Am the Warlock (hidden track; w/ Jack Black)

The vocals and lyrics aren't that serious, but this is less of a joke track than you'd think. If Black Label Society were any good, it would probably sound a bit like this.

Metallica - Bay Area Thrashers: The Early Days

 

Cost: $2.00 

Even though this is a comparatively common bootleg with several different pressings and titles, I was a little surprised to see it in the cheapo bin since it's a Metallica CD. Unfortunately, it's just the No Life 'til Leather demo tracks (in unremarkable quality) with stage banter and fake crowd noise edited in to make it seem like a live recording. Between me already having another version (though this one adds a short intro with a British narrator giving some fake backstory about the recording that mine doesn't have) and it being cobbled together audio, not the most exciting of finds. Still, even with the dumb alterations, it's a classic demo that makes for good listening. There are worse things to spend $2 on (which you can often read about at this very blog!).

Elliott's Keep - In Medias Res (2008)

 

Cost: $2.00 

This walks a very fine line. Even considering the especially heavy guitar tone and more extreme backing vocals, my immediate intial impression was that the songwriting felt much more like straightforward traditional doom, perhaps with a touch of progressiveness. But as the CD goes on, it's obvious the more extreme influences are a significant contributor to the music, and many sections are straight up doom/death. While I don't hear much direct influence musically, all the raspy vocals used on "Black Wings" give it strong black metal overtones. Good find and I like the music, but it just feels strange. When considering the music as a whole it's right on the cusp of being doom/death, but there's just enough classically-inspired doom with clean vocals here where I can't help but mentally classify it as that.

Sacred Reich - Surf Nicaragua

 

Cost: $2.00

Already had this, and in fact at first I thought it was the exact same Hollywood Records version I owned. I've never actively collected various pressings of anything just for minor color or layout differences, although inevitably I run into them while CD hunting. While very similar to my copy, the disc and back insert use the later oval/record shaped Hollywood logo as opposed to the globe graphic. The band/label logos on the disc face are very pixelated and the back insert slaps the Hollywood logo and copyright info in a large white box that obscures more of the artwork, so I'm guessing this was some quick'n'dirty mid-to-late '90s reissue.

As for the music, it's ok. The title track has some of the energy from the first album, but the lack of viciousness and less serious themes (I do like the "Wipe Out" tribute in the middle, though) are more like the follow-up. I'd say it bridges the sound of the first two albums well. Then "One Nation" is totally in The American Way vein. The Sabbath cover is faithful and respectful but there's nothing particularly interesting about it when you can just listen to the original. The second half of the EP is much more to my taste, with 2 live tracks from the debut and a re-recording of the demo song "Draining You of Life" which is more in line with the Ignorance material. Not my favorite stuff, but I like early Sacred Reich enough where this was well worth the two bucks.

Great Sorrow - I Hope

 

Cost: $2.00

I dislike writing about CDs like this because there's a lot going on over the span of the album, but it's neither terrible nor excellent, either of which would more easily inspire writing. It just ends up being kind of decent.

Great Sorrow's previous albums were quite traditional death/doom, and initially I didn't think much had changed from the first two tracks. Nothing terribly unusual about the opening track other than the vocals not starting until 4 min. in (which made me think it was going to be instrumental). The second song is in the same vein, but adds more extreme distorted vocals, synths, and acoustic guitar into the mix, giving it more of an atmospheric flair. "Freak Factory" is an odd attempt at groove metal that incorporates some of the atmospheric elements. 

While I would have roughly categorized the first half of the CD as some sort of doomy atmospheric metal, the second half feels far more like some sort of progressive metal. There are still tinges of the material from the first two tracks, but on the latter half of the album the keyboards and acoustic guitar are in service of more pronounced progressive influences, as well as more classic metal influences and even some brief thrashiness. There's a harmless ballad as well as the weird "Dancer Mary Jane," which starts with a folkish beat, segues into some shredding, and ends with the chorus of "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain" (I don't hear the melody of the actual song though, just the lyrics) and a flushing toilet. Other than that, there's nothing too weird here and it doesn't really try to draw from influences outside of metal or be overly avant-garde. On that note, I should add that I've only heard one of the band's later albums, "New Day Comes," which is much more rock than metal. While "I Hope" certainly has a broader range of influences than their pure death/doom material, it's nowhere near as lightweight as the material that came out years later, so I'm not quite sure when the transition was.

Succubus - Stripped Angels (1999)

 

Cost: $1.00

While it's not the band's fault, two things here probably gave me overly high expectations for this disc. I really like the graphic design of that logo, where it's half illuminated letter and half celtic batwing (which reminded me of the classic Tiamat logo and probably helped set some unrealistic musical expectations). Similarly, Messiah's Frugi plays session bass here, so I was already thinking of early '90s Messiah going into this, even if the music is totally different.

Decent gothic metal. Instrumentation is good, particularly the organ-synths. The 2nd and 3rd tracks have some heft to them, so it's not super lightweight stuff, but there are enough mellow parts (including a balladish closing song) where it's not as death or doom adjacent as I usually prefer my gothic metal to be. The amateurish vocals bring this down a bit--they're heavily accented, sometimes out of tune, and often feel silly and overdramatic, though they're serviceable enough of the time to be tolerable. Ths is a case where I really wish they had just used the backing growls as main vocals. Don't see myself spinning this one much, but I can't really complain about getting a rare gothic metal demo mCD for a buck.

Slayer - Haunting the Chapel (1993 reissue)

 

Cost: $2.00 

Already had this and it wasn't in the best of shape, but I couldn't live with myself if I just left it in the bargain bin. Just a quick track-by-track of my opinions:

Chemical Warfare - Perfect example of upping Show No Mercy's extremity. As much as I love Hell Awaits, I'd pick this as a better song over any of those tracks.  Fantastic.

Captor of Sin - While I don't hate it, something about this song never clicked with me. Maybe it's too upbeat or something. Actually one of my least favorite early Slayer songs, along with "At Dawn They Sleep" and "Final Command."

Haunting the Chapel - Although rightfully largely overshadowed by "Chemical Warfare," this stands on its own merits as quite the evil metal hymn. Probably the most overtly blasphemous Slayer song. Love that end part!

Aggressive Perfector - Great speed metal. Easily stands both stylistically and quality-wise with the more traditional/speed/USPM material on Show No Mercy.

Warfist - The Devil Lives in Grünberg (2014)

 

Cost: $1.00

Make no mistake, this was worth the dollar, although it surprised me how generous the online reviews for it seemed to be--it's good, but not great. Their earlier 7" focused a little more on the black metal side of black thrash, while I'd say the album after this was the opposite. While this first album is much closer to that second album stylistically, I don't think the old school influences are balanced as well. The production puts the drums quite high in the mix and gives the guitars a thickness which lends the whole recording more of a modern black/death metal edge, which I'm not sure that I like. There's a lot of settling into mid-paced tempos here and that brings a strong Motörhead vibe which isn't necessarily unwelcome. Sometimes it works ("HellSlut"), but it doesn't always mesh well with the aforementioned elements. The drummer seems like he would be a better fit in a less oldschool-leaning band where he can blast more. I think simpler drumming pushed farther back in the mix would have suited this a lot better.

I'm very confused about people claiming to hear any distinct Hellhammer, Bathory, or Kreator influences in this. I do hear some Destruction influences here and there, mostly in the guitarwork--the Infernal Overkill-esque riff in "The Fire of Our Wrath," the solo in "Black Mass Ritual," and then those overly enunciated syllable-by-syallable vocals in "1665" remind me of the "Insane brain..." part of "Confound Games." I don't hear any direct connections to old Sodom as some online reviewers have mentioned. Ironically, the Sodom album this reminds me of the most is Genesis XIX, which of course came out years after this. The second half of "The Damned" felt like it might have been influenced by something gallopy from Show No Mercy (I'm specifically thinking part of "Face the Slayer").

"The Fire of Our Wrath," "Vengeance from Hell," and "The Damned" were worth hearing, while the rest of the CD is decent but not essential listening. A bit of a shame it doesn't feel as old school as an overall album as some of its constituent parts. I must stress again that Warfist's second album Metal to the Bone improves on this tremendously.