Crawl - Earth (1995)

Cost: 99¢

Did not have high expectations for this.  I was familiar with the opening track "Skinned" from a Pavement compilation, but dismissed it as generic industrial metal with samples and shouty vox.  When listening to the entire album, I was surprised to find well done industrial death metal.   While there is some clear Godflesh inspiration here, in most songs the death metal is far more emphasized, so comparisons could also be drawn to the Fear Factory debut. Thankfully, most of the vocals are of a more guttural variety.   Not something I would listen to a lot, but I found it enjoyable.

Dead on Arrival - Alive and Kickin' (1995)

Cost: $1.00
This CD is available for trade.

Expected--and got--indie hard rock. Unbeknownst to me when snagging this, the bassist is Mike LePond of Heathen's Rage and Symphony X fame.  Despite that and the list of metal singers in the vocalist's thanks list, I must stress there's no actual metal here.

Performance wise this is ok, but the music and lyrics all seem super cliche and uninspired.  Worst are the schmaltzy attempts at '80s style power ballads.  This is the kind of stuff I call state fair hard rock--the type of band you'd hear as free entertainment at some local event. It probably sounds better with muscle car displays or booths selling custom airbrushed t-shirts nearby.

Blatant Disarray - Everyone Dies Alone (2010)

Cost: $1.50

This CD is available for trade.

Main influence here is the commercially successful US thrash of the mid/late '80s to very early '90s-- when most bands and labels wanted a piece of that Big 4 pie--mixed with a more modern sound and playing technique.  It's not overly modern, groove-laden Andy Sneap produced crap, but neither it is super old school sounding.  Vocals are a mid-range style that remind me of Chuck Billy...Due to the band's major influence, it would be prudent to say they're quite reminiscent of Hetfield as well, but Chuck definitely moreso.  One thing that struck me as odd is that many of the the choruses are overly accessible sounding.  Not as in catchy, but as in written with a deliberate modern hard rock influence.  They're not CD ruiners, but I found it weird some of the choruses were sudden introductions of quite Disturbed or Avenged Sevenfold sounding stuff into thrash.

The band is at their best when they tighten the focus to blatantly Metallica-influenced material.   Much of the album, particularly the second half, sounds like a very modernized take on Master of Puppets-inspired ideas ("Faithless," in particular), while actually falling far short of that kind of greatness.  "Eye Fortune" has a very AJFA-sounding part with twin acoustic guitars.

Mitra - All Gods Kill (2006)

Cost: 99¢

 

Unbeknownst to me when buying this, the drummer here is Rigor Mortis' Harden Harrison, and the vocalist is Kurt Grayson, who was on that third, very Testament-sounding Wrath album.  I found out immediately prior to listening.  I point that out because normally that sort of bandmember pedigree would make me stupidly optimistic, but it didn't here.  Too many letdowns have taken their toll, I guess.

 

The fast and mid-paced material here is groove metal.  There's some punkish energy in the fastest stuff and there's a thrashy riff here and there, but nothing terribly interesting for the classic thrash fan (namely, me).  The other half of the album goes for a slow-paced, sludgy, southern type of sound, perhaps like a b-level version of Down, who I don't particularly like in the first place.  Unfortunately the main vocals are aggro nonsense.  "War Horse" has some doomy stoner riffs approaching something you might find in a Wino project, but any potential it might have had is killed for me by those lame Anselmo-style vocals.

Opiate for the Masses - Manifesto (2008)

Cost: $1.00

This CD is available for trade.

Picked this up solely because it was on Century Media.  I know, I know, nowadays that's hardly an indicator of quality.  I have only myself to blame.  But I saw the chick in the band pic and figured some sort of gothic/power metal mix at best, alternative stuff like later Lacuna Coil/The Gathering at worst.

Very unexpectedly, it's mostly in the vein of '90s mainstream industrial rock--think Stabbing Westward, Nine Inch Nails, Filter, etc.  Also has a bit of an Alice in Chains vibe to it at times, though obviously with more electronic and industrial elements.  Nothing here to interest me, so the best I can say is that the opening track and the cover of Portishead's "Wandering Star" have catchy choruses.

Ascension Theory - Answers (2002)

Cost: $1.00

Melodic prog. metal, not mind-blowing but certainly worth the buck.

Nocturne - Guide to Extinction (2005)

Cost: around $1 (bought as part of a lot)
This CD is available for trade.

Not metal.  The band/album name and album art might indicate the possibility of metal, but as soon as I saw the band logo, I suspected it would be industrial or electronica (which is vaguely true).  

Most of the CD's first half sounds like female-fronted '90s alternative rock, with relatively minimal industrial and gothic influences tacked on.  In the later songs, they lose the overly sweet vocals and increase the industrial influences a bit, and it comes off like a mix of Bile, White Zombie, Hole, and a little bit of Marilyn Manson.   No thanks.