Virgin Black - Requiem - Fortissimo (2008)

 

Cost: $2.00

What a pleasant surprise. The other Virgin Black material I've heard was very symphonic and quite gothic-influenced. This album tones those elements way, way down, dials up the doom, and replaces the clean male vocals with gutturals, resulting in a very nice doom/death disc. As with the other parts of the Requiem trilogy, they recorded with a full orchestra, although since the symphonic aspects of the music have been scaled back, I really only took great notice during "In Winters Ash" and the string ending of "God in Dust." The choir backing vocals seem even more prevalent than the orchestral stuff.

The style here is not as unique as the band's older material, but that's no problem, as I personally prefer this old Peaceville 3-influenced sound much more.

Noctis - For Future's Past (2007)

 

Cost: $1.00

Quite morose and doomy progressive metal that primarily uses death metal style vox (as well as some black metal ones in "Eternity's Worth). The extremity of the vocals makes a world of difference to the sound, and beefs up the music considerably. They're certainly a doomy band, but I wouldn't say they have a particularly crushing guitar tone, and there's even a certain airiness to many of the riffs. But whenever those vocals kick in, everything seems way more doomdeath-like. There are also a fair amount of clean vocals, usually during the mellower, more progressive-forward parts. At these points, the music takes on somewhat of a (doom-adjacent) gothic metal character. Also really liked the "Nostalgia" instrumental, which is a great mix of ethereal and melancholic.

Nice little EP, glad I found it. 

White House Burning - I Am Hatred (2015)

 

Cost: $1.00

I wasn't really paying attention to the copyright date when I bought this, so based solely on the simplistic CG art, I kinda just assumed this was from the early '00s. I was a little shocked it was from 2015, because the cover would have already looked pretty dated in the '90s. The feel of the cheap-looking CGI art reminds me a little bit of the cover of the Corum CD I posted about ages ago, although the jail bars make me think of the 2nd Zoetrope album.

While the budget cover with non-logo and politically-charged band name would normally scream groove metal, I was actually quite optimistic about this disc. When I looked it up, I saw that the guitar was Damon Bernklau of Seventh Omen, who were a terribly underrated heavy/power metal band I liked quite a bit. 

I have mixed feelings about the CD depending on the song. For an old school metal devotee like me, the overall sound feels way too modern for me, and some of the tracks get pretty groove metal-ly or do too much playing around with vocal effects. They're obviously not trying to be an consciously old school band in any respect, from production to aesthetics. But at the same time, a lot of the individual riffs and solos don't feel very modern at all (the guitarwork is, as expected, very proficient) and there's a pleasing thrashiness to several of the songs, particularly "American Christ" and the title track. This comparison might be a bit of a stretch that is overly biased by the politically charged lyrics here, but a couple of riffs feel like they should have been used in The System has Failed/United Abominations-era Megadeth. Even the ballad "Stay the Course" has a solid melody once it gets going, although it feels terribly out of place among the other songs. 

The vocals are a gruff, mildly hoarse style which I disliked at first, though you get used to them. Even without being overly HC or aggro-sounding, admittedly they're not particularly good vocals, although they work pretty well on "White House Burning."

In the context of a bargain bin find, I think there's enough decent material here to justify spending a buck or two. But I would have been quite disappointed and/or livid to have paid normal used CD price or even worse, full retail for this disc. 

 

Avang'Hard 2 compilation (1994)

 

Cost: $1.99

Compilation with 5 obscure French bands who get 3 songs each:

Broken Arrow

The intro to "Highway Stranger" reminds me a bit of Anthrax's "In My World," then it becomes some kinda-thrashy-but-not-really-thrash stuff. The solo section is great though. "Sword and Sorcery" has some nice '80s sounding galloping trad. HM sections and an awesome solo, but it's let down by too many plodding parts and ill-fitting vocals. Last track is bass-driven, mellower, and has more of a proggy feel.

 

Hysteria

"La Raie Publique" is pleasant, rumbly metal. There's something in there that reminds me of a mid-paced Vulcain song, but it's not Motörheadish at all. From this, I had high hopes they'd be the best band on the compilation, but "Never Die" is kind of generic hard rocking, while "Extasy" brings back some heaviness but isn't nearly as interesting as that first song.

 

Queensway

Kinda disappointing. "Just Fight" seems hard-driving at first but the sleazy vocals and hair band touches put me off.  "No Excuses" seems like it's going to be cool with a very interesting Egyptian melody, but then the chorus parts drastically shift to very hair band-sounding stuff. "Don't Be Afraid" balances the metal and the L.A. influences a little better, but I'm not sure how I feel about the weird chorus and vocal effects. At least it stands out I guess...

 

Revert

Was not expecting this at all! Very shreddy all-instrumental stuff with a drum machine. These almost feel like stock music or backing tracks (I mean this in the best way possible) you'd hear in an older video game or other media when heavy music is needed. Even with no vocals and a drum machine, they're the most consistent band on here by leaps and bounds, and these songs come off as more fully formed and well-composed than the other bands. 

 

Daggers Drawn 

The name made me expect a punk/HC band. First 2 tracks are very alternative rock sounding. I suppose the last track starts to approach being some sort of prog./avant-garde/funk metal hybrid, but it's nowhere near interesting enough for me to want to further dissect it.

 

Not really that great in itself as a compilation, but somewhat interesting as a look at some unknown demo-level French bands. To the credit of the bands, I will say that with the exception of Daggers Drawn, any of this material would be believable as earlier '90s or even late '80s recordings.

Arnaud Krakowka - Antic Journey (2011)

 

Cost: $2.00

The first actual song on here, "Lifeforce," is progressive neoclassical metal with some nice shredding, and then "Apollo's Northern Land" is a much mellower prog. metal/prog rock piece. After that, while there's still some shreddy guitarwork here and there, the album largely shifts away from anything particularly heavy and/or metal. The last track does pick up with enough neoclassical guitarwork that I wouldn't argue if someone called it shred.

The bulk of the album is guitar-centric progressive rock, and with Arnaud's obvious love of ethnic melodies (such as the electric sitar use in "The Truth Behind Horus"), several songs exhibit a lot of world music influence, often bordering on some sort of progressive/ambient fusion. Often not very appropriate for the scope of this blog, but pleasant musically.

However, while Arnaud may be a talented guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, his vocals are plain and sub-par. "Lifeforce" could have been improved with a stronger singer, but since there aren't any super compelling vocal lines here anyway and several tracks (which tend to be more interesting) are already vocal-less, I think the album would have benefited from being completely instrumental.

Also should add the booklet has two pages of text with some new age-sounding diatribe (the lyrics also vaguely lean towards those types of topics, although no more than a lot of power metal bands do). Not really clear how serious it's supposed to be or whether it's an attempt to artificially inject the album with some sort of spirituality to make it seem deeper. I mention this because while the various world melodies somewhat play into this concept, I would have expected a far more psychedelic album from reading through the booklet.

Not something I'd put on if I needed a metal or even a shred fix, but I could see revisiting it in the future as mellower background music.

Celtic Frost - Into the Pandemonium (1999 reissue)

 

Cost: $1.99

I think my first exposures to Celtic Frost in any capacity were the video clips on the old Noise Rec. VHS compilations, but I'm fairly certain "Mesmerized" (on the Doomsday News compilation) from this album was the first Frost I ever owned on CD format. It definitely wasn't as cool as the "Circle of the Tyrants" video, but we'll get to that shortly. Despite that single song being early in my metal history, I ironically didn't hear the album in its entirety until after everything else in their original run (and nope, haven't heard Monotheist yet) because I just never saw it for sale anywhere.

It's not my favorite, but I don't really mind most of the avant-garde experimentation on this album. Considering this was from 1987, the strings and symphonic elements are integrated quite well, and I personally find "Oriental Masquerade" to be one of metal's standout outro tracks. "Babylon Fell," "Caress into Oblivion," and "Sorrows of the Moon" all seem like fairly natural progressions from the To Mega Therion sound into more experimental and atmospheric territory. And the "Mexican Radio" cover is very fun. But there's one thing that helps to kill a lot of potential enjoyment I would get from the album.

Those crap vocals. 

Yes, when I heard "Mesmerized" all those years ago, I thought the semi-moaned, heavily-accented gothic crooning was goofy, and whenever it pops up on the whole album, I still feel the same. Even when they're restricted to a fairly short section, like in "Babylon Fell," they help spoil the entire track with their corniness. That's why "Inner Sanctum" is my favorite track from the album, because it's free of those silly moanings. It's also fairly thrashy and even hints at the sound of some of the Vanity/Nemesis material.

So yeah, even as a die-hard Emperor's Return fan, I don't think the album is terrible so much as it is the victim of a very poor artistic decision in that one vocal style. I can completely understand people who think Cold Lake is a better album--I definitely thought so myself, although I haven't listened to Cold Lake in its entirety for years, so my views may very well have softened. Plus, those weird vocals aside, the more straightforward sections are quite good. The guitar sound is a little subdued and obviously better-produced from the earlier material, but the classic Frost tone is still there in some form.

Should also add while this album is often invoked as a groundbreaking influence on the more experimental and weird fringes of metal, which are largely irrelevant to my listening preferences, I don't think this album gets quite as much credit for its influence on the symphonic/atmospheric doom/death scene. I have vague memories of hearing My Dying Bride for the first time, and the juxtaposition of the heavy riffs and the violin immediately made me think of Into the Pandemonium and the influence it must have been on them.

Cwn Annwn - Blood of the Djinn (2008)

 

Cost: $2.00

Would have expected a band using this name to be more in a folk/pagan metal style, but the cover aesthetic and band picture were giving off groove metal vibes, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised that the first track sounded a lot like some kind of contemporary heavy metal--not overly old-school sounding, but the guitarists have obviously listened to some classic metal before. However, right out of the gate on the first song, they also introduce the two things I dislike the most about this EP. 

I'm not a fan of any of the vocals on here, including the main female vocals, which I'll admit are at least serviceable. She doesn't have a bad voice, but she doesn't really modulate her tone much at all, just the power level. It's the same kind of clean singing through most of the disc with no attempts at aggression and little variation, so it comes off as monotonous. Even some of the variations in Cwn Annwn's music make it clear her style would fit better in a gothic or progressive metal band. However I might feel about her, she's not as awful as the secondary vocals, which thankfully are used somewhat sparingly, (but still way too much for my taste). There's a sort of semi-shouted style, aggro screaming, and less obnoxious growling, which of course is used the least. That leads me into my other complaint, which is the decision to throw groove metal parts into the music. It's not a major component of the music and they seem to draw other aggressive influences from elsewhere, so I found the chuggy stuff needless.

The Scion 

This starts out with almost melodeath-sounding riffage. As mentioned before, they chose to put a chuggy break in the middle, but there's a cool, progressive, vaguely Middle Eastern sounding part (I guess technically the solo section) with harmonized guitars. There are some more substantial progressive metal parts later on in the disc, but they also have a habit of throwing in little proggy parts or bass licks here and there, which I quite like.

 

Calypso

This is the first and most abundant use of the backing vocals, and on top of that, I find the main vocal melody to be off-putting in this one. The underlying guitarwork isn't as bad as the backing vocals make it feel, but still the worst track.

 

Recoil

Nice prog. metal. The vocals are a better fit with the mellower sound. 

The Djinn

Easily the most aggressive song on the EP, very melodeath adjacent. Opens with quite a thrashy riff. The growlier backing vocals are introduced here, which fit the tune, but unfortunately but the backing screams and some chuggy riffs return. I would say this is the singer's strongest performance, and at times the juxtaposition of strong clean vocal melodies over harder music gave me After Forever/Within Temptation vibes, even though the music is a bit more extreme than that symphonic power metal type stuff.

The Fury

This track is from their earlier debut full-length prior to the female vocalist joining. Her vocals are on it and the CD calls it a remix, so I'm not sure if it's just the original track with new vox mixed in, or a complete re-recording. This is by far the most traditional metal-influenced track with some nice galloping riffs that are bridged by proggier "Recoil"-type mellow sections. I wish the entire disc had been like this!

 

So yeah, even with the interesting parts, nothing particularly great, but for the bargain bin price, this indie EP was definitely better than I was expecting. 

 

Post-listening update: So I quickly checked out some of the band's other material online. I was especially curious if more material from the band's first CD was in the vein of "The Fury." While it does have much more of a traditional metal feel than the EP I've covered here, I was rather taken aback by the awful and amateurish semi-shouted vocals, which ruin any old-school feel that album might have had. While I still don't think the singing gal is a great fit, she's a definite improvement over the vox on their earlier material.

 

Since Blood of the Djinn is a pretty varied EP, I briefly skimmed through some of their newer material to see if they leaned in any particular direction. A few tracks seemed like they moved in more of a progressive power metal direction, although I heard at least one track that was unfortunately very groove-metal sounding. 

 

I'm a little surprised the more extreme side of the music seemed to be greatly reduced. I thought there was a fair amount of modern melodic death/thrash and melodeath-sounding riffwork on the EP, but since it doesn't always feel predominant, I would guess that comes from general contemporary metal trends and influences, and not conscious influence from any old Gothenburg bands or anything. It could also be some of the shared classic metal influences in the guitar harmonies and axework making me think it's a bit more melodeath inspired than it actually is. Anyway, hopefully I'll come across more of their stuff in the cheapo bin sometime so I can do a proper comparison.