Metallica - Bay Area Thrashers: The Early Days

 

Cost: $2.00 

Even though this is a comparatively common bootleg with several different pressings and titles, I was a little surprised to see it in the cheapo bin since it's a Metallica CD. Unfortunately, it's just the No Life 'til Leather demo tracks (in unremarkable quality) with stage banter and fake crowd noise edited in to make it seem like a live recording. Between me already having another version (though this one adds a short intro with a British narrator giving some fake backstory about the recording that mine doesn't have) and it being cobbled together audio, not the most exciting of finds. Still, even with the dumb alterations, it's a classic demo that makes for good listening. There are worse things to spend $2 on (which you can often read about at this very blog!).

Elliott's Keep - In Medias Res (2008)

 

Cost: $2.00 

This walks a very fine line. Even considering the especially heavy guitar tone and more extreme backing vocals, my immediate intial impression was that the songwriting felt much more like straightforward traditional doom, perhaps with a touch of progressiveness. But as the CD goes on, it's obvious the more extreme influences are a significant contributor to the music, and many sections are straight up doom/death. While I don't hear much direct influence musically, all the raspy vocals used on "Black Wings" give it strong black metal overtones. Good find and I like the music, but it just feels strange. When considering the music as a whole it's right on the cusp of being doom/death, but there's just enough classically-inspired doom with clean vocals here where I can't help but mentally classify it as that.

Sacred Reich - Surf Nicaragua

 

Cost: $2.00

Already had this, and in fact at first I thought it was the exact same Hollywood Records version I owned. I've never actively collected various pressings of anything just for minor color or layout differences, although inevitably I run into them while CD hunting. While very similar to my copy, the disc and back insert use the later oval/record shaped Hollywood logo as opposed to the globe graphic. The band/label logos on the disc face are very pixelated and the back insert slaps the Hollywood logo and copyright info in a large white box that obscures more of the artwork, so I'm guessing this was some quick'n'dirty mid-to-late '90s reissue.

As for the music, it's ok. The title track has some of the energy from the first album, but the lack of viciousness and less serious themes (I do like the "Wipe Out" tribute in the middle, though) are more like the follow-up. I'd say it bridges the sound of the first two albums well. Then "One Nation" is totally in The American Way vein. The Sabbath cover is faithful and respectful but there's nothing particularly interesting about it when you can just listen to the original. The second half of the EP is much more to my taste, with 2 live tracks from the debut and a re-recording of the demo song "Draining You of Life" which is more in line with the Ignorance material. Not my favorite stuff, but I like early Sacred Reich enough where this was well worth the two bucks.

Great Sorrow - I Hope

 

Cost: $2.00

I dislike writing about CDs like this because there's a lot going on over the span of the album, but it's neither terrible nor excellent, either of which would more easily inspire writing. It just ends up being kind of decent.

Great Sorrow's previous albums were quite traditional death/doom, and initially I didn't think much had changed from the first two tracks. Nothing terribly unusual about the opening track other than the vocals not starting until 4 min. in (which made me think it was going to be instrumental). The second song is in the same vein, but adds more extreme distorted vocals, synths, and acoustic guitar into the mix, giving it more of an atmospheric flair. "Freak Factory" is an odd attempt at groove metal that incorporates some of the atmospheric elements. 

While I would have roughly categorized the first half of the CD as some sort of doomy atmospheric metal, the second half feels far more like some sort of progressive metal. There are still tinges of the material from the first two tracks, but on the latter half of the album the keyboards and acoustic guitar are in service of more pronounced progressive influences, as well as more classic metal influences and even some brief thrashiness. There's a harmless ballad as well as the weird "Dancer Mary Jane," which starts with a folkish beat, segues into some shredding, and ends with the chorus of "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain" (I don't hear the melody of the actual song though, just the lyrics) and a flushing toilet. Other than that, there's nothing too weird here and it doesn't really try to draw from influences outside of metal or be overly avant-garde. On that note, I should add that I've only heard one of the band's later albums, "New Day Comes," which is much more rock than metal. While "I Hope" certainly has a broader range of influences than their pure death/doom material, it's nowhere near as lightweight as the material that came out years later, so I'm not quite sure when the transition was.

Succubus - Stripped Angels (1999)

 

Cost: $1.00

While it's not the band's fault, two things here probably gave me overly high expectations for this disc. I really like the graphic design of that logo, where it's half illuminated letter and half celtic batwing (which reminded me of the classic Tiamat logo and probably helped set some unrealistic musical expectations). Similarly, Messiah's Frugi plays session bass here, so I was already thinking of early '90s Messiah going into this, even if the music is totally different.

Decent gothic metal. Instrumentation is good, particularly the organ-synths. The 2nd and 3rd tracks have some heft to them, so it's not super lightweight stuff, but there are enough mellow parts (including a balladish closing song) where it's not as death or doom adjacent as I usually prefer my gothic metal to be. The amateurish vocals bring this down a bit--they're heavily accented, sometimes out of tune, and often feel silly and overdramatic, though they're serviceable enough of the time to be tolerable. Ths is a case where I really wish they had just used the backing growls as main vocals. Don't see myself spinning this one much, but I can't really complain about getting a rare gothic metal demo mCD for a buck.

Slayer - Haunting the Chapel (1993 reissue)

 

Cost: $2.00 

Already had this and it wasn't in the best of shape, but I couldn't live with myself if I just left it in the bargain bin. Just a quick track-by-track of my opinions:

Chemical Warfare - Perfect example of upping Show No Mercy's extremity. As much as I love Hell Awaits, I'd pick this as a better song over any of those tracks.  Fantastic.

Captor of Sin - While I don't hate it, something about this song never clicked with me. Maybe it's too upbeat or something. Actually one of my least favorite early Slayer songs, along with "At Dawn They Sleep" and "Final Command."

Haunting the Chapel - Although rightfully largely overshadowed by "Chemical Warfare," this stands on its own merits as quite the evil metal hymn. Probably the most overtly blasphemous Slayer song. Love that end part!

Aggressive Perfector - Great speed metal. Easily stands both stylistically and quality-wise with the more traditional/speed/USPM material on Show No Mercy.

Warfist - The Devil Lives in Grünberg (2014)

 

Cost: $1.00

Make no mistake, this was worth the dollar, although it surprised me how generous the online reviews for it seemed to be--it's good, but not great. Their earlier 7" focused a little more on the black metal side of black thrash, while I'd say the album after this was the opposite. While this first album is much closer to that second album stylistically, I don't think the old school influences are balanced as well. The production puts the drums quite high in the mix and gives the guitars a thickness which lends the whole recording more of a modern black/death metal edge, which I'm not sure that I like. There's a lot of settling into mid-paced tempos here and that brings a strong Motörhead vibe which isn't necessarily unwelcome. Sometimes it works ("HellSlut"), but it doesn't always mesh well with the aforementioned elements. The drummer seems like he would be a better fit in a less oldschool-leaning band where he can blast more. I think simpler drumming pushed farther back in the mix would have suited this a lot better.

I'm very confused about people claiming to hear any distinct Hellhammer, Bathory, or Kreator influences in this. I do hear some Destruction influences here and there, mostly in the guitarwork--the Infernal Overkill-esque riff in "The Fire of Our Wrath," the solo in "Black Mass Ritual," and then those overly enunciated syllable-by-syallable vocals in "1665" remind me of the "Insane brain..." part of "Confound Games." I don't hear any direct connections to old Sodom as some online reviewers have mentioned. Ironically, the Sodom album this reminds me of the most is Genesis XIX, which of course came out years after this. The second half of "The Damned" felt like it might have been influenced by something gallopy from Show No Mercy (I'm specifically thinking part of "Face the Slayer").

"The Fire of Our Wrath," "Vengeance from Hell," and "The Damned" were worth hearing, while the rest of the CD is decent but not essential listening. A bit of a shame it doesn't feel as old school as an overall album as some of its constituent parts. I must stress again that Warfist's second album Metal to the Bone improves on this tremendously.