Freaklabel - Monolith (2007)

Cost: $2.00

I was mildly pleased to find that this CD was better than what the band photos and nu-metallish bandname suggested, but for the purposes of this blog that's still very relative--it's not something I would voluntary pick over the thousands of better musical options available.

The band mixes groove metal with melodeath, thrash, and metalcore elements. While I'm not a big fan of the more modern influences, they're not quite as overdone as in other bands of the style, and with the presence of actual song variety and some decent riffage, I have to acknowledge their compositional skill as being better than similar bands. 

...Of course, any positives are ruined by the forced aggro vocals. "Leader of Disaster" (or at least the first part) in particular would have had so much potential with some actual vicious thrash or death vocals, but the strained Pantera vox just make me lose interest. Not as bottom of the barrel as breakdown-happy metalcore or Vulgar Display of Power emulation, sure, but nothing to get excited about either.

Destruction Evolution - Relentless (2010)

 

 Cost: $2.00

Initially the band name had me thinking modern thrash or groove metal, although some quick online research revealed it to be...SOUTHERN METAL. I realize it's quite a nebulous umbrella term that can be used for music that ranges from stoner rock to sludge, but typically I tend not to be into the kinds of bands that use it as a descriptor. I can give something a fair shot for 2 bucks though.

The majority of the disc feels like a mix of Alice in Chains (largely due to the vocals) and the rockier stuff of both Black Label Society and CoC (I consider CoC to be the standard Southern metal influence, so this isn't too far off from what I initially imagined). The issue I have is that while the music is arguably heavy because of the guitar tone and low end, it's too rocking and bouncy and rarely feels very metal at all. The title track has some decent Sabbathy vibes and they start to venture into actual doom territory on "Voodoo Vibe," but with all of the other influences here even the high points are a bit underwhelming.  Guitarwork is good for what it is and I greatly prefer the singer to Zakk Wylde (though not Layne Staley), but overall not my kind of thing.

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.