Testify! The Best of Christian Metal compilation (1988)

 

Cost: $2.00

Yikes...Just a quick glance at the tracklisting shows how ridiculous that "The Best of Christian Metal" subtitle is. Still, this ended up being way more valuable than I thought and I wasn't terribly familiar with some of the bands on here, so I went ahead and got it.

Even keeping in mind this CD was released on Arrival Records, the Christian sub-label of K-Tel--who are no stranger to shoehorning all sorts of rock and hair band stuff on their "metal" compilations--it's quite the stretch to call some of this metal (and yes, I'm fully aware the bands probably had no say about being on this compilation). Let's see just how off-topic things get: 

1. Barren Cross - King of Kings

I find this to be one of the tamer, less interesting tracks off Atomic Arena, but I have a feeling it's gonna be one of the heavier tracks on here... 

 

2. Shout - Winners or Losers

AOR. Nothing to pique the interest here except the solo. 

 

3. Whitecross - Love on the Line

Seems kind of plodding at first but catchy chorus. This is from an EP between their first two albums and they still had some (L.A. style) heaviness to them. Vocals remind me a lot of Stephen Pearcy.

 

4. Jerusalem - Dancing on the Head of the Serpent

I'm only familiar with a few songs of earlier stuff, which were hard rock, but heavier than this. The synths make this overly poppy, though I will say I'm amused what a happy and jubilant-sounding song it is given the title. 

 

5. Mark Farner - Judgement Day Blues

Blues rock. Definitely the strangest inclusion. 

 

6. Ruscha - Come Alive

More AOR. This band had two Russian brothers whose parents were supposedly exiled to the Siberian coal mines (the dad became a Christian there), and eventually the family fled the U.S.S.R. to escape religious persecution. Always sounded like an exaggerated tall tale to aid in their evangelizing. I believe the entirety of their backstory as much as I believe Ruscha is metal.

 

7. Bloodgood - She's Gone

I would have much rather heard something heavy from one of the first 2 Bloodgood albums, but if they had to pick something from the then-current (and much more commercial) Rock in a Hard Place album, this power ballad was probably one of the better choices.

 

8. Neon Cross - (This Is The) Right Time

Very poor song choice. Just about anything else from their debut would have wiped the floor with the rest of the comp., but Arrival had to pick the token commercial track. Even so, it still sounds super heavy compared to the pure AOR stuff. That chorus, though. Yech.

 

9. Mastedon - Wasn't It Love

Commercial hard rock. This was also on the California Metal compilation, but it stands out much less negatively here in the company of some other lighter stuff. 

 

10. Gardian - I'll Never Leave You 

On the commercial side--not the heaviest of their material but not quite the lightest, either. Splits the difference between melodic metal and L.A. hair band stuff (especially the saccharine chorus). 

 

Khthoniik Cerviiks - SeroLogiikal Scars (Vertex of Dementiia)

 

Cost: $3.00

Actually, this find is from around early 2020, because I picked it up on the last major CD hunting trip I made before Covid really hit (the news was covering how quickly it was spreading, but there were no lockdowns or mask mandates yet). Finds were really scarce compared to all the places I went--before this, I had only found an Italian symphonic power metal disc (by a band I can't recall offhand), and a copy of the Gigantour double-DVD (it was super minty and even included a third bonus disc, so I couldn't resist). My favorite CD watering hole had literally nothing to offer.

Then I found this at the last store of the day. I was actually back there again not too long ago, and unfortunately their bargain bin was reduced to a shelf of less than 2 dozen CDs with nothing of interest. Anyway, at the time I bought this, they actually had a couple of metal discs in the bargain bin--all I remember now is the Emperor debut and a Nile album--but all of other discs were so scratched up that I had to pass on them. This is one of the most underground releases I've ever found locally, and while I was pleased to find something so eclectic, truthfully I wasn't expecting much from the band. Yeah, there's a Hellhammer shirt in the band pics, but the spelling of the band name and titles seemed corny, and I was prepared for war metal or generic black/death.

I remember some vague associations struck me when seeing the logo. The weird spellings immediately made me think of Sadistik Exekution, although the calligraphy and cover art realistically owe more to Away than Rok. My brain keeps telling me there is another band with a logo very similar in style to Khthoniik Cerviiks'. It might be Katharsis and I misremembered just how spiky their logo was.

The music took me by surprise. From the start, there are strong Voivodian overtones to the riffage, like some Killing Technology/Dimension Hatröss idea applied in the context of death metal (with some minor black metal influences at times). In fact, the two parts of the title track sound very much like Voivod meets Altars/Blessed Morbid Angel, though without the chaotic Azagthoth shredding. The twisted and somewhat weird nature of the music also reminds me quite a bit of early Sadistik Exekution, although Khthoniik Cerviiks lack the crazed Altars of Madness/Seven Churches-on-crack feel of The Magus and don't come off nearly as unhinged. While there is some weirdness here, to be fair, on the full spectrum of extreme metal, this isn't particularly crazy or experimental especially compared to something like say, Portal, but that's probably why I enjoyed it. Despite some of the unusual songwriting and atypical elements, one foot is always grounded in more straightforward extreme metal composition, so it never meanders off into overly progressive nonsense.

Can't say this is my favorite kind of metal, but this is the only death metal release I have discovered with any sort of weird/oddball elements that I've genuinely enjoyed in recent memory.

Assimilation - Tainting the Purity (2020)

 

Cost: $2.00

I feel bad about not liking this more, because strictly as a bargain bin find, it's fantastic, but based on my own expectations, I was a little disappointed. The Evil Invaders shirt on the back and the Disciples of Power t-shirt (never seen one before, even on the band themselves!) in the booklet as well as seeing them called a "death/thrash" band online made me anticipate wonderful things.

Rather than the late '80s death/thrash I was hoping for, this venerates early '90s death metal. While there are thrash influences in the music, I don't think there's enough to warrant it as part of their genre descriptor in any way (at least for this album). After listening to the album, I was somewhat shocked to see that no reviews I could find mentioned Morbid Angel. There are certainly other bands that take more direct inspiration from MA, but at times this definitely has that swarming MA feel. The very lead guitar-forward feel of the music and some of the vocal cadences also immediately brought Morbid Angel to mind. There are of course other influences, but I hear those to a lesser degree. There are some tastefully shreddy leads and solos, and the guitarwork reminded me a bit of the Suffocation EP and debut in that the guitarwork is quite proficient on a technical level, but the songs themselves are more traditional and not technical death metal. There's even some early Cannibal Corpse in their sound too.

The King Diamond cover is fine, although they bury the falsetto backing vocals way in the background. I read that the band wanted to do something other than a death metal cover, which is great, but "Welcome Home" seems so cliche. Especially with the decent guitarwork, it would have been cooler to hear a deep cut off Fatal Portrait or even one of the faster-paced Mercyful Fate songs.

So yeah, unfortunately maybe I just don't find their songwriting that interesting, because there's nothing I can really point out as a particular misstep here, especially considering they draw major influences from an era of death metal that, while not quite my favorite, I still actively enjoy very much. The CD is good but falls short of being great for me. But again, to find something like this in the cheapo bin is amazing.

Battlecross - Pursuit of Honor (2011)

 

Cost: $2.00

I was under the mistaken impression Battlecross was straightforward retro thrash, which I would have greatly preferred. Instead, it's a melodeath foundation with metalcore, modern thrash, and groove influences added on top. The blatantly Slaughter of the Soul-influenced parts are alright and no better or worse than any other band in a similar melodeath style, but the vocals on the album come off as overly forced to me. Even considering sections that show potential, I would never pick this over a more modern sounding death/thrash release from say, The Haunted or Carnal Forge, even though I'm not the biggest fan of those types of bands.

White Lion - Fight to Survive

 

Cost: $2.00

This CD is available for trade.

Bought this intending to trade, but I was curious if there was any heavier material on it, since the only White Lion songs I'm familiar with are "Wait" and "When the Children Cry." Of course they get a meaningless metal classification from the people who automatically categorize all hair and glam band stuff as heavy metal, but was slightly optimistic since Greg D'Angelo was in Anthrax and some of the songtitles sounded promising ("All Burn in Hell" and "The Road to Valhalla"--the latter ends up being an decent ballad). Unfortunately, no repeat of the Great White disc here. "Kid of 1000 Faces" and "El Salvador" have comparatively heavy riffs, but this is typical mid '80s hard rock hair band stuff.

Black River - Black'n'Roll (2009)

 

Cost: $1.00

I noticed that most of the information about Black River online emphasizes that the Dimmu Borgir live drummer and current Behemoth bassist are in the band. Perhaps it makes marketing sense to mention them, but those associations have nothing to do with the music here, and since neither member played on the '90s material of those bands, I don't personally care at all. What I did find more interesting is the band is a continuation of a later lineup of former Adipocere signee Neolithic (only one guy from their early doom/death stuff appears here, though).

Nothing extreme here, just hard rock with varying amounts of stoner/Southern influences. The guitars are generally heavy enough to give it a fairly metallic feel, although much of the songwriting feels relatively mainstream. The more straightforward hard rocking material isn't exceptional, but it's pleasant enough. I almost wish they had stuck to it more because their attempts at more emotive stuff (sometimes incorporating very mild gothic metal elements) are kind of sappy and weak, and whenever they try to go for heavier material they generally resort to modern groove metal riffage. The title track stands out because it's far, far punkier than anything else on the album. The verse sections sound a lot like Graves-era Misfits (the rest of the song, not so much). Not an awful use of a dollar but lacking quite a bit as a diversion from full-on metal.

Bümbklåått - Ciegos (2003)

 

Cost: 99¢

Raging metallic hardcore. The main vocals are more guttural, which admittedly made it much easier for someone like me--far more into death metal than punk/hc--to get into. Unfortunately, the secondary vocals are weak shouting. They're about the only thing I didn't like about it, but of course the band has to constantly use them.

It was interesting trying to look this up in the store before buying it, because it's labeled as all sorts of subgenres depending on the reviewer or distro (metal is often mocked for pedantic classification, but you eventually realize almost every form of music suffers from this to some extent). Calling it simply punk or hardcore really says nothing and ignores the metallic influences here. It's generally pretty fast but falls well short of crossing into grind or powerviolence territory. Because of the metallic nature I can see similarities but I definitely wouldn't consider it crust, either.

Hellblock 6 - Burnin' Doom (2002)

 

Cost: $1.00

Not sure what I was realistically expecting when I picked this up, but it sure wasn't this. Sludgy stuff with copious amounts of punk and stoner metal influences. I'm not a huge fan of the vocals, which are pissed off HC screaming, but at least compared to other stuff I typically review on here, the vox actually fit the music to some extent and accentuate the punk influences here. The title track and "War Between the Worlds" (which are coincidentally the only 4+ minute tracks) represent the band at their most metallic and doomy, particularly with the Sabbath influences in the latter. I'd even feel comfortable calling these particular tracks stoner doom. But to be honest,, in the unlikely event that I ever decide to revisit this CD, it's probably going to be for the more upbeat rock'n'roll influenced stuff like "Drink to Think," where the vocal style makes the lyrics even more amusing.

Deviant - Endless Black Skies (2003)

 

Cost: $2.00

I bought this thinking it was going to be a fairly straightforward modern thrash or groove metal CD, but this actually mixes the groove/thrash stuff with some death metal, which I wasn't expecting at all. The songs generally lean one way or another. Even when they play groove metal riffage, there's a beefiness to the guitar tuning and tone that gives it a slight DM feel. There are some actual chunkier death metal riffs to be found as well. Vocals mostly ride the line--there's an aggro shoutiness to them, but they're also quite gruff and often on the cusp of being full on guttural/growling DM vox. They slightly remind me of Max Cavalera.

Aftermath - There Is Something Wrong (2019)

 

Cost: $2.00

Some parts of this disc pleasantly surprised me, but overall this was rather disappointing. Several songs on the album draw from the crossover roots of the band's first two demos--such as the hyperfast "Smash "Reset Control"--which was totally unexpected, especially considering they had shed the punkier elements completely by the time of their Eyes of Tomorrow debut. The second half of the CD focuses more on progressive thrash stuff in the Eyes... vein. Fine with that too.

There are two big problems here. This album is one of the worst examples of overusing small soundbites and various associated effects that I've ever heard. Early on, it seemed like they were just intros and segues between tracks--maybe not the greatest choice in my opinion, but tolerable. But they seemed to get more and more intrusive as the album went on (or maybe I was finally getting ear fatigue from the constant barrage). "Handful of Dynamite" and closer "Expulsion" are dedicated entirely to these effects, and feel like tracks that would be more at home on a noise or industrial album.

The other issue is the vocals, which often take the form of irate shouting and/or unhinged rambling, usually disrupting the music in the process. I know Eyes of Tomorrow had some staccato vocal patterns, but this is just ridiculous. Again, they're something that would probably fit better in an industrial band or even something like Rage Against the Machine. The super fast crossover sections tend to have more fitting vocals, at least.

Although it was interesting to hear what the band came up with after a long hiatus, the histrionic vocals and overdone audio samples/effects make it hard to enjoy any of the underlying music in a straightforward way. It barely squeezes by in terms of being worth the 2 bucks, and I'm glad I didn't have to pay more for it.

Anthrofuge - Impaled in Comparison (2004)

 

Cost: 99¢

Decent brutal death metal indie. While they're by no means exclusively slow, I do like that there's not a lot of blasting and they seem to favor slow and mid-paced tempos. The slow stuff (particularly on the early tracks) almost has a deathdoom feel to it, which I wish there was even more of. In general I hear vague similarities to the mid-paced George-era Cannibal Corpse stuff, but otherwise, while this is hardly original sounding, any influences are so mixed it's hard to make direct band comparisons.

There's a long 8th unlisted track which has about 20 minutes of audio of the band playing foosball. Keep in mind, this alone runs longer than all of the previous songs COMBINED. I realize it's there as more of an inside joke, but I thought it was dorky. But it's your own CD, do what you want.

The end of the extra track has a cover of Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out for a Hero." I'm glad they actually listed writing credits for it in the liner notes, because even with the silly "Doo doo doo"s, it's completely unrecognizable to me. Because of that, don't really have any strong opinion on it, as it just sounds like a random demo or reh. death/grind track they stuck at the end.

Nice little find for the price.

Heavy Halloween (2000)

 

Cost: $2.00

This is one of those compilations with all covers, which is obviously far less expensive than paying licensing for the original songs. There are hundreds of these types of compilations for pop music, but this is one of the few they made for metal/hard rock. All tracks are very generically credited to "The Hit Crew." I'm a little surprised I haven't ever seen this in a bargain bin until now. Compared to normal tribute compilations or novelty tributes (string quartet tributes to metal/rock bands, etc.), I will say that the quality of the arrangements and performances here is extremely high. They're covers by professional studio musicians, after all.

1. Don't Fear the Reaper (Blue Öyster Cult) 

Kind of a cliche inclusion, but I couldn't help but marvel at all the attention to detail even if I think the song is overplayed--the layering of the vocals, the keyboards, even the cowbell sounds right. 

2. Highway to Hell (AC/DC) 

I don't care about the original that much, but good as a cover. The vocalist has some grit to his voice compared to other tracks on here, but doesn't sound anywhere near Bon Scott or even Brian Johnson.

 

3. Diary of a Madman (Ozzy Osbourne)

Seems like a comparatively obscure cover choice for a compilation like this. The vocals seem to have some kind of effect to them which helps mimic Ozzy's strained high notes, but it makes the clean verse vocals sound odd. Otherwise not bad.

 

4. Runnin' With the Devil (Van Halen)

This is the first track that really goes for the vocal stylings and mannerisms of the original. Sounds like it was done by a seasoned Van Halen tribute band with a really good DLR impersonator.

 

5. Number of the Beast (Iron Maiden)

The one track I was most curious about. It's a solid, albeit somewhat generic sounding cover. For some reason, the Dave Murry solo is quite decent, but the Adrian Smith solo is off and simplified in parts. The Bruce scream is also pretty tame.

 

6. Dragula (Rob Zombie)

Not bad but feels off. They were meticulous about reproducing some of the electronic effects and guitar tones of the intro, but the song itself feels simplified and mellow. The riff is still catchy but it's not nearly as bombastic as the original. There are some slight effects on the vocals but compared to the original's, they're almost too clean.

 

7. Bark at the Moon (Ozzy Osbourne)

Musically I like this better the "Diary of a Madman" cover, but the vocals are the worst on the entire CD so far. They seem very pinched and are double-tracked or layered. I know Ozzy isn't the greatest singer but these sound out of tune in a couple places. 

 

8. Shout at the Devil (Mötley Crüe)
Fine musically, but these vocals may be even worse (I don't care about the original like I do "Bark at the Moon" though). There are enough brief flashes of something Vince Neil-esque that I can see why they picked this singer, and I'm in no way saying the high-pitched swaggery stuff in the original is an example of great singing. But here, this guy squawks through the high pitched stuff with difficulty, often sounding like a bad Axl Rose impression.

 

9. Welcome to My Nightmare (Alice Cooper)

As with the BOC opener, I appreciate all the attention to detail in the cover, but the vocals here are not a great fit.

 

10. Space Lord (Monster Magnet)

I'm not very familiar with Monster Magnet and don't own anything by them, so when I saw the title, I assumed it was the Hawkwind song. Now hearing it, I vaguely remember the riff and some of the lyrics (update: I checked and it's the music video I'm remembering, but I didn't associate it with Monster Magnet). Good cover but like "Dragula," seems more laid-back than the original.

 

11. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (Black Sabbath)

While not an obscure Sabbath song by any means, I was pleasantly surprised this was the pick for the CD. I would have expected "Iron Man" or "Paranoid." This was the track that interested me second most after Maiden, but after hearing the vocals on the Ozzy solo covers, I feared for the worst. Same singer, and there's still some kind of vocal effect, but for some reason it works here and the vocals come off as a reasonable Ozzy emulation aid. Easily the best track on the entire CD.

 

12. Enter Sandman (Metallica)

Based on the some of the other tracks, I was worried any attempt at Hetfield vocals here would be kind of silly, but they're not too bad at all (for some reason they decided to replace the child reciting the prayer with a gay man, though). Good cover but another where I'm not particularly invested in the original.

 

13. Sympathy for the Devil (The Rolling Stones)

Uh. Maybe the strongest contender for worst vocals yet.

 

14. Psycho Circus (Kiss)

Solid cover and even manages some Paul Stanley emulation in the vox. Seems like a weird choice for this kind of compilation compared to other potential covers, though.

 

15. Freak on a Leash (Korn) 

Again, not sure how this fits the CD's theme. As with many of the other covers, the music is recreated pretty faithfully but the vocals are off. You can hear they were trying to imitate the original in many aspects but didn't quite get there.

Unleashed Power - Mindfailure (1998)

 

Cost: $2.00

The packaging/layout here is strange, since the proper band name is not used anywhere except in the website and email address in the booklet. The cover and spines just have a tiny "U.P." Considering this was released in the '90s, that strikes me as an incredibly poor marketing move, so I wonder if there was some purposeful reason for it. I didn't even realize it was the Quintet of Spheres band at first, but luckily the "Mindfailure" album title on the spine was metal-sounding enough to prompt me to pull out the disc and look at it.

This is somewhat of a pity. Ken Jacobsen assembled an entirely new lineup (including Jörg Michael on drums!). The power metal tendencies from the debut have been almost entirely abandoned, the overt progressiveness has been scaled back quite a bit, and there's more of a focus on the technical thrashing. I hesitate to say it would make my shortlist of tech. thrash favs, but I think they're rather underrated within the style.

So what's the issue? The vocals. And if you've read much of this blog, you know what I'm going to say. Dry-sounding, histrionic aggro stuff. They're not even terribly forced as far as aggro vocals go, but the guy was obviously influenced by Phil Anselmo and it just completely takes me out of fully enjoying the music. I'm not even a huge fan of the vocals on the first album, but at least they're serviceable. Adding insult to injury, I noticed the singer here is the same guy who played drums on the Chalice (NJ) demo, which was some really good metal (they should have got the warbly singer from that demo for Unleashed Power).

Black Sabbath - Vol. 4

 

Cost: $2.00

This is actually my very first time owning this album and even hearing it in its entirety. Aside from Paranoid and Sabotage, all of the regular Ozzy-era Sabbath albums were very scarce (or were snapped up very quickly) finds even at normal used CD prices, and I don't ever recall even seeing Vol. 4 before. Since I was far more obsessed with other metal bands, I could never be bothered to buy it new. 

As I mentioned in an earlier Sabbath post, I think the best early Sabbath material is spread widely over their albums, but no single album is truly consistently great. So I pretty much only knew this as the album that had "Snowblind" on it, which is indeed my favorite track on here. Had also heard "Changes" before and was familiar with "Laguna Sunrise" since it was used at an outro at some live gigs (it's a wonderful instrument, but still nowhere as good as "Fluff"). For the rest, I can see why "Supernaut" is well-liked for its psychedelic sound, but it's not my kind of thing. "Cornucopia" and "Under the Sun" are pretty good but I'm disappointed they both get pretty upbeat after those MONSTER doomy riffs that open each song.

Feels considerably weaker than the albums that directly preceded and succeeded it, but I'm glad I finally got to hear it!

Admiral of Black - The Hand of Chaos (2009)

 

Cost: $1.00

 

Mix of groove and Southern metal, though instead of Sabbath grooves or big dumb mosh riffs, they put in a lot of rock'n'roll swagger and even some thrashiness. While it's not something I'd probably reach for again, I do acknowledge that compared to most BLS/COC derivatives, there's more about the music I find enjoyable. Worth the buck just to check it out.

United We Stand compilation (2000)

 

Cost: $2.00

Knew nothing about this disc or any of the included bands, but bought it solely for the one band who I figured would be metal. Not a great find musically, but I'm glad I ended up getting it, because it seems to be pretty scarce.

1. Damned Cause - Sterilized Nation

Didn't really take great notice of the band and track name until I got home and looked the CD over. I figured this might be groove metal based on the logo, and I was right. Unfortunately the vocals make this very wigger/nu-adjacent-sounding, even though the guitars remind me a bit of something Chaos A.D.-like. At least there's an attempt at a guitar solo.

 

2. Anubis - Make A Wish

Some sort of pop/punk and alternative mix I guess? I thought the singer was a chick until about halfway through.

3. Resin - Past

In a complete reversal of what almost always happens, based on their old webpage address the band considered themselves hardcore, while I'd definitely say the riffage puts them in some sort of groove metal or at least very metallic HC territory. The super aggro vox get on my nerves though.

 

4. Liquid Edge - Heal My Wounds

At first, the guitars made me think this was going to be more groove metal, and there's a recurring riff that's pretty heavy. But as soon as the vocals kick in this lightens up tremendously. I guess it's some sort of somewhat progressive rock/metal? The guitar solo is quite good.

 

5. October Thorns - Page One

Even though I wasn't familiar with them, this is the band that inspired me to get the disc. Solid prog. metal.

 

6. Atmosfear - Target Realm

The band name had me hoping this would be more full-on progressive metal, which unfortunately wasn't the case. Rumbly guitars, but otherwise the situation is similar to the Liquid Edge track. There's a bit of quirkiness/progressiveness here, and the vocals kind of weaken this (although he does suddenly break into some falsetto shrieks at the end).

 

7. MindTwist - B.U.F.F.A.L.O

Nu with aggro vox.

8. All For Nothing - Last Attempt

Some sort of rock. I wouldn't call this metal but there seem to be influences in the guitarwork. As with the Anubis song, it can be hard to determine the singer's gender at times.

 

9. SkrewTape - What?

Promising (at least for this comp.) start, but devolves into nu-crap. At least the guitarwork is kinda thrashy compared to the MindTwist track. The vocals seems silly and amateurish, sounding like they were recorded spontaneously over the backing music without being properly mixed.

 

10. DIM - Smug

Dark alternative rock, like a much darker version of Bush. Quite interesting just by virtue of being the most unique sounding band on here.

 

11. Invision - Don't Bleed For Me

Late '90s alternative/college rock sounding track.

 

12. Vent - Fish Outta Water 

Female-fronted pop-punk.

Poets of the Plague - Poets of the Plague (1999)

 

Cost: $1.00

Not quite the death/doom I was expecting from what I read online. This is varied early-mid '90s sounding death metal, and while there are some slower doomy parts, none of that is consistent throughout an entire song. On the other end of the spectrum, there's quite thrashy, faster-tempoed material too, like "Spun" and "In God He Trusts." Vocals on the opening track and "Broken Home" are typical DM gutturals, but otherwise, the main vocals are a somewhat more intelligible raspier style.

There are quite a few spoken word parts scattered across the CD, including a full recitation of Edgar Allan Poe's "Alone" poem as the intro for the second track. Plenty of concept albums or more theatrical-themed bands use a lot more of that than what's here, but it seems kind of unusual for an independent CD. Mostly, I didn't care about these parts either way, although admittedly the shoot-out voices and cheap-sounding effects in "Pushed" (about James Huberty's McMassacre) and the domestic squabble that intros "Broken Home" come across as overdone and silly.

One aspect here that really stands out is the super thick production, with an almost black metal buzziness to the guitars. I've read this was a deliberate decision by the band with them intending to make it sound extremely heavy, but they felt the end result was overdone. I quite like it, and I wish they had ultimately included more doomy riffs, as the guitars make the slow stuff sound especially heavy and nasty.

Being perfectly honest, I didn't think this was fantastic, but it was definitely worth the dollar and immediately after listening, I felt positively enough about it that I was thinking to myself that I may revisit it once in a while. Then I immediately realized that may be overly optimistic considering all the other stuff out there competing for my listening time. We shall see.

Apostle of Solitude - Last Sunrise (North American version) (2004)

 

Cost: $1.00

Every review I've seen of this mentions how terribly the cover art for either version fits the content, and this one will be no different. I understand what they were going for conceptually, but it's just a bad choice for a doom metal album.

The band doesn't make any huge missteps but I found this CD to be underwhelming and ultimately kind of disappointing. It's just straight up doom, with no stoner/fuzz influences, and it's not even terribly Sabbathy, except perhaps for the minimalist "Letting Go of the Wheel." Unfortunately, many of the songs are way too long without having quality content to justify it--the songwriting and riffage is way below any of the classic '80s or '90s doom bands. It's kind of absurd to me to see people favorably comparing this to prime '80s Candlemass when it doesn't even reach Count Raven levels. At times I'm reminded of a more simplistic version of the later Solitude Aeturnus albums. There is some good material here, like "Frontiers of Pain" and its nice soloing or "Hunter Sick Rapture," but the album didn't rise above being something somewhat pleasant to listen to in the background. There's just too many 7+ min. songs to wade through. The vocalist isn't that bad of a singer on a technical level, and I got used to him as the album went on, but there's something about him I can't quite put my finger on that isn't the best fit with doom metal. Too clean and not mournful enough, perhaps?

I happened to get the North American version, which has different bonus cover songs from the European pressing...They're better than I thought but I really want to hear the Thin Lizzy and Celtic Frost covers from the Euro version now. The cover of The Obsessed's "Streetside" is done very faithfully, although it's a bit wasted on me since I much prefer the albums that came before The Church Within. The Misfits' "Astro Zombies" cover is quite fun, even though the vocals are much closer to Michale Graves than Danzig. I'm not familiar with Born Against but it sounds like a pretty faithful HC cover, just with a noticeably fatter guitar tone than on the rest of the CD (the cover tracks were recorded in a different session from the album).