Punish My Heaven - First Punishment (2010)

Cost: $1.00

Ultimately this was about what I expected, though I won't deny deep down I may have had faint hopes of potential based on the band name. Rather than classic Dark Tranquillity worship, this is quite groovy and aggro melodeath with forced HC vocals. In fact, most of the time, the amount of metalcore influence present here makes me think of something like Caliban (though with far more melodeath and modern thrash influences) rather than any '90s Gothenburg stuff.  Since this was just a buck, I'm not terribly disappointed, I just doubt I'll be inclined to ever listen to this again.

Onslaught - Killing Peace (2007)

Cost: $2.00

I wasn't expecting Sy Keeler to sound the same as he did 20 years ago, but the gruffer vocals on the first track surprised me a bit and actually brought Martin Walkyier to mind. Then throughout the rest of the disc, the deeper, angrier vocals consistently made me think of Martin or The Demolition Man, never anything from The Force. A major reason for this is the SEVERE lack of high vocals--I didn't even notice any attempts at them except briefly in "Planting the Seeds of Hate." Based on some of the other post-reunion Onslaught stuff, I'd guess Sy's high range is largely shot (however, since are some decent shrieks on the re-recording of "Power from Hell," he was evidently able to still pull them off in some capacity at that time).

Musically the album is inoffensively alright but there's not much to distinguish it from the contemporary recordings of veteran US thrash bands. I hear similarities to the Exodus, Death Angel, and Overkill material of the '00s, but not any to the preceding Onslaught albums. I also see strong parallels with Destruction in that both bands had distinctive over-the-top high vocals on their old recordings which were abandoned for angrier vocals and a more modernized, less interesting sound.  

Unfortunately rather lackluster for me, but purely as bargain bin fodder it's above average both in quality and band pedigree.  Worth the $2 just to see what they've been up to since the '80s.

Ichabod - Reaching Empyrean (2005)

Cost: $2.00

No particular expectations for this. The first track was straightforward stoner metal/rock with a strong doomish vibe and solid clean vocals. An entire album of that kind of material would have been quite satisfying, and certainly the best parts of this disc for me are when they're in that vein--which isn't all that much. The amount of rock influence in the riffage here makes me hesistant to call this doom as a whole, but they're certainly far more metallic than a typical '70s throwback stoner rock band. 

Since I found that initial track to be pretty decent, it was disappointing they chose to try their hand at a number of different things throughout the rest of the disc. Starting around the last third of the second song, they start to integrate aggro vocals, which just make the music seem like generic screamy sludge or southern metal. The three 7+ min. tracks  showcase mellower sections, like the long acoustic guitar-driven section of "Manna," which seems like an emotive minimalist ballad a '90s grunge band might write (I mean this in the best possible way). They also try out psychedelic sounding material to a limited degree, particularly in the closer "Violet Sky." It's hard to evaluate this as a whole since the album oscillates between straightforward doomier stuff, the angrier aggro stuff, the mellow parts, Sabbathier sections, and the more '70s sounding psych parts.  There's even a cover of Negative Approach's "Evacuate," which is fine musically but has those dreaded aggro vocals out in full force.  Some stuff works here, some stuff doesn't.  Didn't wow me but the good parts are probably worth what I paid.

King Diamond - Abigail II: The Revenge (2002)

Cost: $2.00

Full disclosure: I'm not an obsessive fan of the original Abigail (though "A Mansion in Darkness" is awesome) or King Diamond in general for that matter. I've never heard any KD material that was outright unpleasant to listen to, but it all just really pales in comparison to early Mercyful Fate for me, and this is no different. I do prefer older KD to newer KD, so I was hoping this sequel would hark back to the original album, but there's no particularly strong musical connection, just a continuation of the storyline. It's far more similar to post-The Spider's Lullabye material--both in terms of music and theatrics--than to the original Abigail, although to its credit, it feels a bit more inspired than the couple of albums that preceded it. Not bad at all for 2 bucks.

TNT - XIII (2018)

Cost: $2.00

This CD is available for trade.

Bought this solely as a tradable.  I'm well aware the band moved completely away from heavier pastures ages ago, so I haven't kept up with their output at all, even peripherally.  I wasn't expecting any metal, but it was still mildly surprising how little hard rock there is here (which makes the track "Get Ready for Some Hard Rock" seem especially contrived).  Many tracks are in total AOR or melodic rock territory, although I can't say how this compares to the preceding few albums since I've never heard them. Not going to bash this since it wasn't misrepresented to me and it's far out of my wheelhouse, but it just reinforces that Knights of the New Thunder is the only TNT that will ever really matter to me.

Hailstones Kill 200 - June 19 1932 (2004)

Cost: $1.00

12 tracks of screamy-vocalled grindcore in 8 minutes. Not my cup of tea, even for grindier stuff, but it's such a short listen I find it completely inoffensive. It even manages to be a more substantial listening experience then the Sender Receiver disc I mentioned in a haul a few years ago.  I was quite amused by the "Get fucked cunt - fucking hypocrite go and fuck your dropdead seven inch" on the insert--these appeared at the end of the rather jumbled and organized column of lyrics, which I'm assuming they are, but sadly I can't find any intelligible sign of them in the vocals.

Judas Priest - Metal Works -73-'93 (1993)

Cost: $2.00

Not a fan of best-ofs and compilations with no previously unreleased material, but since this was a nice clean copy in an undamaged fatboy double CD case, I had to get it. Not surprisingly, Priest has been quite scarce in my bargain bin hunting over the years.  

I realize they had no choice because of the rights issues with the Gull Records material, but the lack of anything from the first two albums ("Victim of Changes" is the Unleashed in the East version) is a huge strike against this. Initially I was a little surprised at the inclusion of "Sinner," although since they skipped cover songs, it's the obvious choice to represent Sin After Sin together with "Dissident Aggressor."   In fact, the only inclusion I couldn't really understand is "Wild Night, Hot & Crazy Days;" "Locked In" seems like a more logical choice in any respect. Anyway, personal biases aside, a very solid retrospective of (as the liner notes unashamedly put it) "the world's greatest true Heavy Metal band of all time."