Law of the Plague - The War Inside (2003)

Cost: 99¢

First impression:  Not good.  The lineup photos (which are some of the worst--and oddest--I've ever seen) look like a nu-metal band ready for a paintball game.  Ultimately bought it because I was curious about the "Bite It You Scum" cover.

Initially I was thrown for a loop because the first song opened with groovy/chuggy riffs that weren't entirely unexpected, but then they suddenly speed up into death/thrash parts (and then wind down into groovier stuff at the end of the track).  Unfortunately this is about as good as it gets aside from the decent instrumental "Call to Arms."   The rest of the disc is a weird combination of a groove metal base, but with some quite thrashy or chunky death metallish riffing at times, and a very nice DM-like guitar tone.  The heavier elements make this more interesting and certainly more palatable than straightforward groove metal, but I have no interest in hearing the modern/groove stuff in the first place, and I can't imagine any classic death or thrash metal fan finding the mixture here to be a benefit.

The GG Allin cover is kind of disappointing except for the chorus.  It's sped up a little and sounds quite upbeat compared to their original material.  The vocal phrasings are odd at times, and they throw in some needless groove part before the solo section.

Lobotomy - Born in Hell (2000)

Cost: 99¢

This CD is available for trade. 

Previously had this.  I couldn't remember anything specifically about the album, although I recall being generally underwhelmed and disappointed with Lobotomy's music as a whole after their demos (particularly the first two).  I mostly remember them as one of the comparatively obscure Swedish DM bands (along with Vermin and Hetsheads) who had their demo material put out on CD in the mid-'90s, way before such reissues were common.

It's actually a little better than I expected, but I'd still just give it an OK overall.   Groove-filled Sunlight DM with some dabbling in more death'n'roll-styled riffs here and there, not too different in approach from the mid-'90s output of Grave and Konkhra.  "Ashes" and "Bloodangel" have some riffs and leads very reminiscent of '90s Slayer.

Random 2017 finds

A buck each:

Howling Syn - Devilries
Average gothic metal.  It's not as overblown and theatrical as the band pics might suggest, but it's nothing great either.  The vocals are the weakest element here.  The clean vox are quite mediocre across the board.  It's as if they tested out several vocal styles just for the sake of variety, not caring about the quality or if they actually added anything to the atmosphere.  The female vocalist is the main offender since she shows up so much but isn't a particularly great singer--unspectacular on main vox, and adds none of the ethereal atmosphere you might expect from good backing vox.  The male vocals aren't that much better, especially the deep clean vox and the dramatic spoken word-style vocals.  There are some DM growls that work well with the music, but of course they're used very sparingly.  As for the rest of the music, it's okay for gothic metal, but nothing spectacular.

Lilitu - The Delores Lesion
This actually wasn't quite as avant-garde as I was expecting.  The majority of the music is Dark Tranquillity-style melodeath, but punctuated with various atmospheric parts and elements--most of these sections have a gothic metal/rock feel, although there are some Opeth influences too.  There are a couple of really nice acoustic guitar parts on the album, but unfortunately they're few and far between.  While most everything works pretty well together, the clean male vox used in several places don't contribute positively to the atmosphere.  I really liked the short instrumental interlude track "Ether," which seems like it's going in a depressive Katatonia-esque direction, then suddenly throws in that very dreamlike guitar part at a minute in.

Totimoshi - Ladron 
Think I'd heard of the band as the name seemed familiar, but didn't associate them with metal.  Mainly picked this up since it was on Crucial Blast.  Overall I'd describe them as some sort of heavy garage rock, though they occasionally get more experimental and play with twangy atmospheric acoustics.  At their most straightforward they go full-on stoner rock with clear 60s/70s influences, but as the album progresses there's a lot of more modern sounding material reminiscent of garage rock and Sabbath-inspired '90s alternative bands.  Think a weird 21st century mutation of sounds from the old SST Records roster--both straightforward rock and more experimental/jammy stuff.

For the Suffering - For the Suffering (2009)

Cost: 99¢

First impression: Well, the band name certainly sounds like something a death metal band would use.  However, the layout, band members, and songtitles seem more fitting for -core stuff.

The album starts out on a quite Arch Enemy-influenced note, which isn't terribly exciting to begin with, but as it goes on the frequency of breakdowns and chug-a-lug riffs increase, and much of the album ends up being generic bastard-son-of-Slaughter of the Soul metalcore.  Main vocals are typical -core screeches done by a chick.  For better or for worse, they're pretty indistinguishable from male vocalists in the style and have the same monotony.  There are some sparingly used clean female vocals that just pop up under the music in some songs, as the album really doesn't have any true clean passages to place them in.  They provide some vocal variety, but other than that, don't have much impact.
 

Overall, the album is much more on the metallic side of metalcore than I would have initially guessed, but this is still just a mediocre example of a genre I don't enjoy anyway.

String Tribute to Slayer (2009)

Cost: $1.00

Tracklist:

1. Psychopathy Red 2. Raining Blood 3. South of Heaven 4. Angel of Death 5. Black Magic 

6. War Ensemble 7. Seasons in the Abyss 8. Disciple 9. Dead Skin Mask 10. Dittohead

I debated in store for a while whether to get this or not, and ended up buying it just because I knew I wouldn't realistically get it any cheaper. Unfortunately I wasted my dollar--this is garbage.
  

I'm aware there is an earlier Slayer string quartet tribute CD that uses actual musicians, but the "string tribute" name here is somewhat deceitful since it's all synthesized strings.  It comes off as very cheap and MIDI-sounding in the worst possible way.  The arrangements aren't particularly interesting or creative, so it even fails as a novelty listen--there are far better 8-bit/chiptune covers of Slayer on YouTube.  Most of the songs become unrecognizable any time the main riff is not being played.  Before listening I was pleased to see "Black Magic" in the tracklisting (I was expecting more South of Heaven tracks) but of course it's one of the worst tracks.

Shining Fury - Last Sunrise (2004)

Cost: $1.00

One of my few finds from a very sparse recent haul at my main used CD provider.  Generic power metal here, primarily speedy-tempoed, with minimal keyboard use--ultimately, just another band doing some permutation of a Helloween (unfortunately, here more Deris than Kiske)/Gamma Ray-derived formula.  There are some basic similarities to the bigger Italian power metal bands, but they lack any real progressive stylings compared to Labyrinth and Vision Divine, and there are no Rhapsody symphonics.

There are only a couple of noteworthy moments on the album.  "Memories" starts out with a sample(?) of a couple arguing (due to what's being said and the slightly stilted acting, I'm wondering if this originally came from a porn).  Unfortunately, this turns into a sappy, overly-long ballad complete with a saxophone part (much less obtrusive than you'd think, though).   "Net Love" has a nicely done short atmospheric outro with some acoustic guitar work...Of course, instead of breaking up some of the album's sound-alikeness and monotony by throwing such pieces throughout, they wait until it's almost over.  I was expecting the cover of Toto's "Rosanna" to either be a complete trainwreck or a musical oddity, but it's a quite faithful rendition, only slightly beefed up in heaviness.  Even as a change of pace, it doesn't add that much to the album, and I'd personally rather listen to the original.

I honestly doubt I'll revisit this.  It's well-rooted and competent enough as a power metal release to keep it from being bottom of the barrel, but it doesn't rise above being average.

Shadow - Shadow CD (2001)

Cost: 99¢

This CD is available for trade.

Total Gothenburg melodic DM emulation here.   Already aware this was melodic death with a female vocalist, I automatically expected something more like Angela-era Arch Enemy (read: mediocre), but soundwise this falls right in line with the In Flames and Dark Tranquillity debuts.  I'm sure this was considered far more derivative back when it was originally released, but I'll happily take that above the more recent glut of metalcore with harmonized guitars that masquerades as melodeath.

The vocals are the raspy style you'd expect given their influences...Had I not known, I think I would be really hard pressed to identify the vocalist as female, especially since there are no clean vocals whatsoever.   I generally loathe "extreme" female vocals, but was fine with these.

While easily matching (or surpassing, in the case of the soloing) them in technical proficiency, the songwriting quality and variety don't always feel quite as consistent and inspired as the Swedes they take after--some of the songs feel a bit samey.  Still, fine for what it is, and I can't complain about the price.