Graveyard Rodeo - On the Verge (1994)

 

$2.00

This album was hastily done with a mostly-new lineup to fulfill contractual obligations with Century Media, since Graveyard Rodeo had imploded after their first album. I know the story is that a lot of the album was material already composed by the old lineup, just with rewritten lyrics, but because of the extreme stylistic change (and how well the new vocals completely fit the style of supposedly previously written material), I honestly find that very hard to believe. 

So unfortunately, they've jumped on the groove metal bandwagon, and all other influences that had made their first album such a weird mixture have been pushed far to the fringes of their sound. Vocals are the expected aggro style. While I do slightly prefer the vocals from the debut, those were very hardcore punk-styled, so it's really just choosing the lesser of two evils. Also, to be fair, both vocal styles fit in with the sound of their respective albums.

Speaking of HC influences, that was a major element on the first album, but here it's limited to closer "Nothing to Say" and a few sparse faster parts spread throughout the disc. But by far the worst thing about the album is how much they scaled back the doom and death metal influences from the debut. The best part of the album is right at the beginning, with the great doomy riffage that starts "Self Holyness" off. It made me quite optimistic when I first put the CD on, as I thought maybe not much had changed aside from the vocals. The death metal influence is almost completely gone--the aforementioned beginning of "Self Holyness" is heavy enough to qualify as doomdeath for me, but otherwise, there's really only the fast parts that at the start of the verses in "Taught Well." That's pretty much it for anything DM-like.

If you were to ask me if I liked this album, I wouldn't hesitate to say no, but because of the price, it's not that big of a letdown, and it's not so bad where it feels like a total waste of two bucks. The guitar sound is pleasantly heavy, and there's just enough residual doom and sludginess left in the sound where it's not just generic Pantera cloning. I'm not a huge fan of Sowing Discord in the Haunts of Man, but it managed to mix varied influenced in an interesting way. Most of On The Verge just lets the groove sound dominate lazily.

Haieeta - Mvemjsun (p) (2007)

 

Cost: 99¢

This is too varied for a comprehensive general description, so a quick track-by-track:

1. Dragonflies Terrain

This wasn't a great first impression, because while there's a sludgy, stoner-y feel to the music, the bounciness and vocals give off strong groove metal vibes.

2. Freeze the Flame

The intro has a super-heavy, doomy riff which are easily the best musical idea the band comes up with on the entire CD. Unfortunately, it quickly becomes more of a groovy rock song, and the vocals often have a sort of swaggery rap-adjacent delivery. At least the heavy riff recurs a few times. 

 

3. Haunted Gangster

More of a Southern metal vibe here, still with sludge/groove/stoner metal influences. While not my favorite kind of thing, the vocals and music mesh better here than on the other tracks.

 

4. White Knuckle

More upbeat and rocking, perhaps with some Black Label Society influence. 

 

5. Telepathic Love

Groovy stoner metal/rock, the closest they get to straightforward stoner rock on the disc. 

 

6. Residual Hill 

Stoner metal with some sludgy and even slightly doomy undertones. It's a 15 minute track containing nothing to justify that length, though. I was amused that there's a recurring riff that starts getting used about halfway through that has a chord progression that made me think ever so slightly of Metal Church's eponymous song.

 

This has a barcode so I'm not sure if it ever got legit distribution, but the presentation and even overall musical feel are much more like a demo CD. Can't say I was impressed by anything on here, but for 99 cents, I can't really complain. Don't think it's something I will ever listen to again, though.

Dio - Holy Diver

 

Cost: $1.99

I had completely forgotten I found a copy of Holy Diver at the end of 2022 and had already blogged about it. I would have bought this as a tradeable anyway, so that's what it will end up being.

I gave the disc a listen before I even realized I had already covered the album on the blog, so without the bias of reading or remembering my old work, I can say my thoughts about the album are exactly the same. I can give myself a pat on the back for consistency, I guess. So yeah, first 2 tracks and "Rainbow in the Dark" are the strongest songs, and the middle of the album gets kind of weak. The recurring melody from the intro from "Shame on the Night" is kinda neat, so while I wouldn't call it one of the best tracks, it's probably one of the more interesting middling ones.

The band were capable of crafting some fantastic individual tracks, but I think the first two Dio albums fall short of reaching the sheer excellence of old Priest/Maiden/Saxon/etc. in terms of being all killer, no filler. Ironically I feel this is also the case for Sabbath (regardless of singer) and Ozzy's solo stuff as well. In some ways, I wish the material of the first two Dio albums had been amalgamated into one excellent album instead of two pretty good ones.

Skullwinx - The Relic (2016)

 

Cost: $2.00

Awful band name. Especially when you consider the band name versus the actual music, this could easily rank as one of the worst ever. It immediately evokes associations with Winx Club, which I assume was not the intent. The logo they used for this album doesn't do them any favors either, since it looks like the generic graphic design you'd see from a hard rock band (their older logo is just an Old English font with wings, which I think looks a lot cooler).

The band combine epic heavy metal with speed metal parts. They call themselves epic speed metal, which is a fair enough way to cover both bases, although since the epic stuff greatly outweighs the speed, and only "Carved in Stone" might really qualify as a pure speed metal song overall, I personally wouldn't feel comfortable calling them speed metal without an extra descriptor. As far as the speed component goes, they never get super furious, so think influences from the slightly less lead-footed German bands.

The epic metal influences vary depending on the song. "Hammer of the Gods" is a re-recording of an older track, and is the most overtly old US metal-sounding. Most of the other tracks remind me a bit of the more epic side of Grave Digger's '90s/'00s material, though Skullwinx aren't as power metal-y.

I wouldn't have minded a much higher concentration of speed metal, but otherwise, all I can really critique are a couple spots in the vocals. They're in a rougher mid-range which works just fine most of the time, but there are a couple places where he drifts outside his range trying to hit high notes. I was expecting the worst, so this was quite a pleasant surprise. Since I found this so enjoyable, I can't help but be harsh on the band name--it seems like a huge impediment in an already overcrowded metal scene. $2 well spent.

Action - Overload (1988)

 

Cost: 99¢

Was quite shocked to find this. Even the early Action stuff has quite a lot of rock-oriented songs, though they definitely had some metal in their repertoire too. Unfortunately by this album, they went the route of other Japanese bands like Blizard and Reaction by ditching any sort of real band logo on their covers and switching to hard rock. For hard rock, this is fine. There's some residual heaviness in the guitarwork, and opener "Blow the Night Away" and closer "Violence" are pretty good. Not my musical preference, but it was worth checking out for 99 cents.

For Those About to Rot: A Tribute to AC/DC (2000)

 

Cost: $2.00

The title suggests much more of a death/extreme metal-focused tribute than it ends up being, although compared to some of Dwell's other tributes to non-metal bands, there is, well, surprisingly little non-metal on here.

1. Locomotive - Highway to Hell

Groove metal (with sped-up death metal chorus sections) version with ultra-forced aggro vox. Not the best way to start things off.

 

2. Dementia - Back in Black

I assume this is the same band from the Mötley Crüe tribute I covered on the blog years ago. I was a bit surprised at first, as they look like a nu/alternative band in their booklet photo, but instrumentally the cover was excellent. The singer smartly stayed away from Brian Johnson emulation aside from some mild swagger in the vocals, and while they aren't great, they're serviceable. I should have trusted my instincts about their picture, though...Two-thirds of the way through the song, they put in a angst-y Rage Against the Machine-style rapped section. I wish I was joking! Ridiculous. 

 

3. Colp - T.N.T.

This is somewhat similar to Locomotive's cover, as it's groove metal heavied up with death metal influences. It comes off far better, though. That said, I don't think it's quite as good and definitely not as fun to listen to as Six Feet Under's version. 

  

4. Wasteland - Riff Raff

This is the mid '90s German thrash band. Great musically but the extreme black metal-sounding vox aren't a great fit.

 

5. Assisting Sorrow - Those About to Rock (We Salute You)

Very interesting melodic death interpretation. Rather than typical death or black metal vox, the vocals here are gruff, shouty, and even kind of aggro, with a reverb effect. As with the previous track, they're an odd fit and feel weird.

 

6. Lesser Known - Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

Solid cover musically. I found the vocal affectations and effects slightly distracting at first, but they're not nearly as bad as some of the vocals on the other covers.

 

7. Neurosilence - Who Made Who

Very disjointed death/deaththrash version, light years away from their decent cover on the Death tribute. If it wasn't for the song's title right in the chorus, I don't think I would have recognized this at all. Worst track on here.

 

8. Deamon - Hells Bells

Again, aside from the bells intro and the main riff, it was very hard to hear "Hell's Bells" in here. Since this sounds pretty much like an original death metal song, it kind of defeats the purpose, although because they transformed it so much, it works a little better as an extreme version than some of the other songs.

 

9. Necrology - You Shook Me All Night Long

I was expecting this to be played closer to the original tempo, just downtuned and made extreme ala Six Feet Under. Instead, it's quite sped up, which I do admit I found funny. I think this would have worked better as a hidden bonus track on their own album than on a tribute CD, though.

 

10. Vladimirs - If You Want Blood (You Got It)

Musically, a cool punk-infused cover, but not a fan of the uncontrolled shouty vox.

 

11. Enertia - Walk All Over You 

One of the more faithful versions musically, but unfortunately the band uses regular clean vox, robbing it of any Bon Scott feel whatsoever. 

 

Blessed Agony - Confined Slaughter (2006)

 

Cost: $2.00

Unremarkable death metal EP. Sounds like late '90s "plain" death metal in that there's not really an extra descriptor (technical, brutal, melodic, old-school, etc.) that really fits it. If it were simply generic, I'd probably feel neutral about it, but there are enough little missteps that I feel it's slightly below average. Although I wouldn't hesitate to say it's not that good, it is cohesive enough where it's not terrible.

It doesn't happen too often throughout the course of the CD and it's not even that prominent, but occasionally there will be kinda chuggy riffs that rub me the wrong way and give this a slight metalcore or groove undercurrent. The vocals sometimes accentuate this, because the switches between gruffer shouted lows and forced manic near-BM screams come off very much like -core vox. The band also attempts to use shreddy melodic solo sections in songs like "Remnants of Humanity" and "Torment," but the solos come off as disjointed and amateurish. It's a shame, because they could have been a potential highlight, but it sounds like they were just too far beyond the guitarist's ability to effectively pull off. Even with all my criticisms, I thought "Torment" was an alright song.

After I listened to this I looked up the band on Metal-Archives and happened to notice they were categorized as "black/death metal." Judging by the shirts in some of the band photos, at least some of the members are into black metal, but it doesn't reflect in the music much. I suppose considering some of the tremolo picked parts together with the higher vocal style, certain riffs might have some slight black metal undertones. But calling this black/death overall seems like a stretch.

So yeah, I've done much better in the bargain bin, but it doesn't feel like I completely wasted two bucks either.

Fastway - Trick or Treat soundtrack

 

Cost: $1.99

Not only have I never seen the movie aside from a few clips, I'm really only familiar with Fastway from the videos for "All Fired Up" (pretty good tune) and "Tell Me" (the video is far more interesting than the song itself, though it can't compare to Priest's earlier guitar-aided bank robbery in the "Breaking the Law" vid).

One of the Trick or Treat scenes I have seen is the main character's mom going through some of his LPs, which all happen to be Combat releases. Any of these bands would have made for a far better soundtrack--obviously Possessed had no chance of being on the soundtrack for a commercially-released film, but I think Impaler would have been particularly appropriate thematically. I'd even gladly take Unveiling the Wicked-era Exciter.

Disappointingly, this disc only has hard rock tunes, with no metal at all. Given that it's a movie soundtrack, more accessible music is to be expected, but I figured they'd throw on at least one fast and heavy tune. No such luck. The music has much more of a slick L.A. hair band-y sound than those previous Fastway videos I was familiar with. The guitar licks often remind me of AC/DC, although I fully realize that comes from Fast Eddie's sharing boogie influences with the Young brothers rather than any direct influence.

So yeah, definitely not my kind of thing, and since I have no real history with the movie, there's not even a nostalgia or familiarity factor here for me. I would even say I prefer some of the songs King Kobra did for the Black Roses soundtrack than any of the songs here.

Black Task - Terms of Surrender (2015)

 

Cost: $2.00

On first seeing the cover, the logo style (and band name itself, for that matter) immediately made me think of the bands doing black metal/punk hybrids.

Somewhat technical, fairly proggy modern thrash. I wouldn't argue about calling the first half of the album some sort of progressive thrash, although the progressive influences manifest primarily in the guitarwork. The overall songwriting seldom sounds progressive rock-influenced as a whole, which is what I typically associate with older progressive thrash bands. Also, despite their musical chops and me throwing the progressive term around, things stay pretty straightforward and linear, so don't expect any Voivodian weirdness.

The latter half of the album seems to have more tangible influences from extreme metal. There are varying amounts of it right from the start, but the album just seems to lay it on thicker as it goes on. Other than some black metal-adjacent riffs in "Vacuous Idol" and some beefier riffs here and there, it's hard to pinpoint what's primarily responsible for this. It's like there's an undercurrent of melodeath in some of the songs without them actually feeling much like death metal or even death/thrash. The vocals (more on that in a moment) certainly contribute, but I also think some of it is the modern production and guitar tone creating a generic feel of homogenized contemporary metal.

That wouldn't even be that bad, since there are some okay songs on here ("To Propagate the Void," "Tongues of Silver," and "Haunted Vigil"), but I found the vocals to be way too forced and screamy. Think someone being a little overzealous when trying to do black metal vox and sounding almost as much like a metalcore singer as a BM one, and you're in the ballpark. Yeah, there are far worse vocals out there, but if you haven't noticed, there's not exactly a shortage of metal bands to listen to, so I'm far more inclined to gravitate towards something with less grating vocals.

I will not be in any great hurry to revisit this, but there's enough decent material here to justify the two bucks.

Bobnoxious - Ho Ho Ho (2006)

 

Cost: $1.99

 

So the Bob in Bobnoxious happens to be Bob Reid of Razor fame. Obviously, this has nothing to do with Razor, so I'll save any commentary about Bob's tenure in Razor for a more suitable post in the future, i.e. when Cycle of Contempt shows up in the cheap bins.

Mix of original Christmas songs and covers of holiday standards done in a jolly, almost pop-punkish style, so don't be expecting metal (although their version of "Fa La La" might sorta qualify). I thought the first 2 tracks were the best--the "Merry Christmas/Jingle Bells" medley has sort of a Bad News feel to it, and "Police Nabbed My Dad" is a fun take on the "Feliz Navidad" melody. All of the traditional songs are arranged well, and it was a wise decision to keep the disc quite short (not even 20 minutes) so as not to wear out its welcome. Still, this is ultimately just a somewhat entertaining novelty, and I'm not sure if I'd be terribly inclined to throw it on even during Christmastime. We shall see. But it's alright for what it is.

Acid Witch - Witchtanic Hellucinations (2008)

Cost: $2.00

This one was quite a surprise, as I had seen it among the stores regularly-priced used CDs, and I wasn't expecting it to stick around long enough to get marked down. Original Razorback press too.

I was aware of the band for a while, but had never actually heard them before or even looked into them that much, so my only preconception was weird doom metal. The band name also obviously conjures up inaccurate stoner metal vibes, although I can see how it ultimately fits well with their concept. I wasn't expecting all the doom/death on here and had no idea there would be guttural vocals. I've since read some interviews and the band really seem to downplay the death metal element in the music as being little more than the vocals, but there is definitely a DM influence to some of the riffage that goes beyond just being the guitar tuning or vox.

Rather than being straightforward doom/death, the doom in the band's sound owes a lot to the doomier side of the NWOBHM. The lead guitar often pops up as tinny '70s sounding shredding, and is happily quite Pagan Altar-influenced at times.

There are also the sound effects which are responsible for the band's "psychedelic" descriptor. Aside from intros and interludes, there are occasional pulsating effects which do succeed in giving kind of a '70s/early '80s horror movie vibe despite being fairly minimal. Actually, before I ever heard the band but knew of their Halloween themes coupled with doom, I assumed there would be a much stronger Italian musical influence from say, Goblin, or Paul Chain. There's not at all. In a strange way, the effects sometimes remind me of when Sigh was starting to get super weird in the late '90s, although again, here it's far more restrained.

A few of the songs are very good, but often I think this has more of a unique/interesting vibe going for it than being truly great. I think the musical influences here are sometimes too disparate and don't mesh well in every song. I thought "Cauldron Cave" was one of the better tracks even though that has them leaning most heavily into traditional doom/death (at least after the intro stuff). I find the more upbeat riffage often holds the songs back from being really doomy and crushing, but on the other hand, the brutal vox and chunkiness aren't helpful in creating a mournful Pagan Altar sound. Then again, sometimes it totally works, as on "The Black Witch," which feels like Witchfinder General gone extreme.

Boanerges - Señales antes del fin (1998)

 

Cost: $1.00

Argentine imports aren't exactly common in the bargain bin, so I was already quite happy to find this, but I wasn't expecting to be this impressed by an unfamiliar band's dollar CD. This is the best power metal (that I wasn't previously familiar with) I've heard in recent memory, and has to be one of the best power metal albums released after the early '90s. Considering the modern state of the genre, I realize that may not even be a terribly high bar, but still.

Teeming with classic metal influences, this is generally fast and powerful stuff. The guitarwork is excellent and gets quite showy and flashy with lots of shredding solos, but the greatest moments are the tandem axework, such as in "El tiempo final." I'm not advocating trying to take back the term in any way, as that would be a fool's errand, but to me this exemplifies what power metal was meant to be and should have been--a beefing up of traditional metal to make it more bombastic and contemporary.

I only have two mild criticisms, both extremely minor.  The female singer is fine and there's nothing in the performance that detracts from the album. But due to the strength of the songs, I couldn't help but imagine a singer with more range and power. Also, the intro is just some generic symphonic stuff that seems very underwhelming. The only reason I'm even bothering to specifically gripe about the intro is because the outro track "Majestad" is a fantastic, triumphant-sounding closing flourish.

Black Tusk - Tend No Wounds (2013)

 

Cost: $1.50

When I was first looking the disc over, I will fully admit I had completely confused them for Black Anvil (to be fair, when this was released they were Relapse labelmates). I would have preferred a Black Anvil CD too, although I realized my mental mix up pretty quickly.

Pretty straightforward sludge metal. There's some grooviness to the riffs, so expect something more rocking than old Crowbar or Grief, but on the positive side they don't go overboard with either Southern influences or stoner/Sabbathy influences. Not the biggest fan of the semi-shouted vocal style, but it doesn't fit the music too badly. The instrumental intro "A Cold Embrace" builds up into a cool mid-paced riff that would be great in a death metal context. "The Weak and the Wise" has a bass intro with a chord progression that totally reminds me of Marilyn Manson's cover of  "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)." Aside from the intro, "Internal/Eternal" stood out as being catchier than the other tracks. A pretty meh release for me since the sludge I like tends to be on the doomier side, but it's decent enough for the bargain bin price.

Carcass - Despicable (2020)

 

Cost: $2.00

This is my first time hearing any Carcass material after their reformation. I couldn't be bothered to check out even a single newer song online, so I have no points of reference in terms of comparisons to the other reunion material.

Jeff Walker's vocals are immediately identifiable, and the first, second, and last tracks open with melodic riffage that's very reminiscent of the Heartwork style (though in the case of "The Long and Winding Bier Road," there's a strong Megadeth-ish vibe too). I hear references to all of the '90s Carcass styles across the EP, although they're not always particularly strong, and the modern production values push them farther away from the older releases. The melodic leads have somewhat of a Heartwork feel. The slower tempo-ed groovy parts are a little bit like Swansong, although there's nothing nearly as rhythmic, catchy, or thrashy here. There are even some hints of Necroticism DNA contained here in the more straightforward DM parts and sections with frenzied blasting. I should also add that while the actual sound of the songs is probably much closer to some sort of Heartwork/Swansong hybrid, the varied song structures remind me of Necroticism the most, at least compositionally.

Ultimately, it's okay, but I probably got more enjoyment out of finding this at the store than listening to it. Any of the first 5 Carcass albums would be a far superior listening experience. That said, the vocals and guitarwork give this enough of a Carcass touch that I can't condemn this as being on the level of some newer generic melodeath or death'n'roll band. Fine for $2.

 Oh yeah, before I forget--the artwork on the disc face is awesome, and even the ribcage art on the back cover is pretty cool. Either one of those would have made for one of the best Carcass cover artworks ever. Conceptually, I think a death metal version of the Rod of Asclepius is an interesting idea, and I'll even concede the Carcass logo scalpel is pretty cool. But the serpent skull looks more dinosaur than snake to me, and that it was used on the cover above some of the other art in the layout shows someone (not sure if the band or label are directly responsible) has totally lost the plot.

Bible of the Devil - Freedom Metal (2008)

 

Cost: $2.00

 

Originally discovered this band after seeing a t-shirt, and I remember the band name conjuring up associations with Southern/sludge/stoner metal. It took me quite a while to actually hear them, because they use very, uh, ill-fitting album covers that dissuaded me from checking them out. Their album art aesthetic almost always tends to look like some sort of modern generic retro-hard rock band. This point was even brought up in an interview, and the band revealed they delegate the album art and layout decisions to other parties, like the record label. Terrible idea. This is probably the least worst of their album covers at representing the music, as at least the Flying V in the logo and the album title indicate something metal. The comic-style artwork of a cop chasing motorbikers seems like an odd choice, though. I associate retro motorcyclists with accosting Speed Racer or people in A-Ha videos rather than heavy metal. Even the logo has the chevron thing and superfluous graphic embellishments that scream "made by a graphic designer, not a metalhead." I already have one of the band's older albums, and the cover art looks like a tattoo someone obsessed with Affliction t-shirts would get. 

 

Now that I think about it, Boulder has problems with terrible album covers as well, so I wonder if part of the problem is bands with significant '70s hard rock influences trying to consciously avoid anything that could be seen as an '80s metal trope while working within an indie label budget. I'm sure that cuts out a lot of cool aesthetics, but I'm not convinced it automatically condemns bands to crappy cover art options.

 

On the album I previously heard, the solos and guitarwork were quite good, but the metal in the band's sound was negatively diluted by all the '70s rock and stoner influences. "Freedom Metal" has all of those same basic elements, but they seem to be more balanced in favor of the metal influences, and it comes off as more enjoyable. The first half of the disc is the strongest, dense with heaviness, very NWOBHM-inspired leadwork, and nice catchy choruses. I read something online comparing the vocals to Paul Stanley, and that's strangely accurate--especially on "Night Oath," they sound like Paul with some nasally effect added.

 

Unfortunately, "Heat Feeler" kills a lot of earlier momentum. For its first half, it's an acoustic guitar-anchored Southern (or even country?)-tinged mellow number. After it heavies up it's much better, but the first part is so dissimilar from the previous tracks, it's very jarring. Then there's "Ol' Girl," which on the one hand is cool for being full of Thin Lizzy worship, but it's so much more blatant than on any other song and feels out of place. "Greek Fire" shows the band doing Sabbathy stuff riff wise, but it's all underneath a monotonous drumbeat which I can't decide if I like or not.

 

As a cheapo find, this was fine. The first 3 songs alone are well worth the 2 bucks. But I can't help but think this is a band that is more to be enjoyed in small doses or in a live setting. I'm far more a classic metal fan than a hard rock one, and it constantly feels like the guitarwork is making promises the rest of the album often struggles to keep. I think it's a waste that some of the tasty harmonized twin guitar attacks here aren't being used in more overtly NWOBHM-influenced band. 

Hydra Vein CDs

 

Cost: $2.00 each

 

Hydra Vein - Rather Death than False of Faith

Hydra Vein - After the Dream 

Could not believe these were in the bargain bin and I went absolutely nuts when I saw these Back on Black reissues. I do have the older 2-on-1 CD that compiles both albums together, but these are much nicer in terms of layout. While it was nice to hear the demo bonus tracks on the debut, this is a case where I much prefer the album versions of the songs over the more clean-vocalled demo tracks.

 

After the Dream turned out to be a lot better than I remember. It's a very close call, but I think I'd pick the first album as my favorite of the two just for the better songwriting. The second album still has its own charms, and is a little faster and more vicious in certain parts.

 

I've seen vocalist Mike Keen get compared to Martin Walkyier, which I don't hear at all. Especially on Rather Death..., I hear a lot of the faux-English accent Holy Terror's Keith Deen slipped into (not his vocals as a whole, though). Then, oddly enough, I hear a version of Sy Keeler that I don't think technically exists--no crazy high stuff like on The Force, but not as hoarse and growly as on the Onslaught reunion stuff. 

 

While these are both very good albums, they're not my favorite British thrash by a longshot. In fact, I don't know what album I'd pick as my favorite (Xyster perhaps? Second Deathwish? Maybe even the D.A.M. debut). Quality-wise, I'd group them alongside stuff like Anihilated or the second Decimator album--solid and dependable listens, not quite top of the heap, but far above the Xentrixes, Slammers, Acid Reigns, and Re-Animators.