The End 666 - The Ultra Violence (2003)

 

Cost: $1.00

I was aware of the band when I picked this up, since I have their second CD, although I had zero recollection of what they sounded like. Also, for some reason I was under the impression this was sideproject of a French band, which I guess is true, but I was strongly thinking it was the black metal band Lord, and it's actually one of the guys from Imperial (who, spoiler alert, I'd much rather listen to). The gasmask and naked chick aesthetics brought to mind the late '90s/early '00s French BM scene (for better or worse, I tend to associate those tropes with Battlesk'rs or maybe even Spikekult to a lesser extent), so I figured it had a good chance of sounding in that vein. Then there are the weird, humorous songtitles, which made me think it might be more experimental and non-traditional, like Diapsiquir, perhaps.

And it's neither of those at all. I was quite surprised, because when the distorted, screamy vocals kicked in, they immediately reminded me of the first Abigail album. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for the music, which is very noisy, kinda primitive black/thrash. There is some actual blasting, but because of the vocal style and rawness of the music, it comes across as far more grindier and punkier than it actually is. Sometimes I can even hear some vague parallels to the more chaotic stuff on Morsüre's old Acceleration Process LP, although The End 666 never gets nearly as thrashy or mechanically fast.

The more linear parts of the CD are OK--"Saddam Rules," "Racist," and the last 2 tracks all have some decent riff ideas. Beneath it all, "Rugbymen=Bastards" has the workings of a pretty good black/thrash song, and it's no surprise it's the one song that stands out as being most like Imperial's first album.

This is an interesting case because I wouldn't say I particularly liked this album, but I don't think of it as negatively as a bad or mediocre CD because it was an interesting listening experience. Can't say if I'll ever be inclined to put it on again, but the inspired songtitles and thrashiness in the music made it worth the dollar.

Iceland - Old Temples of Pagan Gods (2011)

 

Cost: $2.00

As a death/black metal band, all the musical components here are familiar, but they're put together in a way that's less common for death and black metal hybrid bands. There are a fair amount of orchestral effects here, and these help in creating a general black metal atmosphere and undercurrent throughout the songs. But the most forward presenting parts of the music--the guitar riffs and the somewhat forced gruff vocals--are definitely death metal in style.

While I'm sure there are some other bands doing music in this same general vein, I can't think of any specific ones, so the first sound comparison I thought of wasn't a super flattering one. The blastier parts remind me of the DM bands from around 25 years ago who, instead of actually incorporating popular black metal elements into their music, just got a keyboard player to add Dimmu Borgir-on-a-budget symphonic effects to their existing sound. I won't say Iceland are as bad as that, but it gives me a similar incongruous feeling.

Luckily, the songs that lean more heavily on mid-tempo riffs come across much better, and the album generally improves as it goes along. They really have it together by the last two tracks, which have a mild Unleashed feel to them.

The disc has its fair share of parts where the band are caught between the genres--I often found myself wishing they'd fully commit to more crushing mid-paced death and dispense with the black metal flourishes, and then other times when overuse of death metal brutality ruins what could have made for something substantial in a more pagan/viking metal vein. Despite it being a little uneven in that way, it's still fairly enjoyable and even very good at times, so I consider it two bucks well spent.

Municipal Waste - Tango and Thrash (2024)

 

Cost: $2.00

Since this was such a recent release, I was very surprised to see this show up in the cheapo bin. Admittedly, I've never followed the band that closely, so when I bought this, I assumed it was their newest album, not realizing it's a compilation of old tracks from some vinyl splits/comps. Even treating it as a mini-CD, it's also extremely short--it doesn't even hit the 10 min. mark. On the plus side, all of the material is from around the time of their first album, and I always found Waste 'Em All to be marginally better and a little less contrived than most of their later material.

And it is indeed in the same vein as their other early material. Opening instrumental "Escape from New York" is the thrashiest the CD gets. Aside from the vocals, the other tracks from the original Tango and Thrash split EP feel a little less overtly D.R.I.-influenced than the debut album--the relentless speed reminds me of variations on Nuclear Assault's "Hang the Pope" with Cryptic Slaughter influences mixed in. Then there's a previously unreleased version of "Dropped Out" from the Tango and Thrash sessions. It's not that different from the album version, and still sounds like a more metallic take on Dealing With It!-era D.R.I. 

Finally, there's a Poison Idea cover and two Corrosion of Conformity covers. The early COC covers aren't a musical stretch at all, but quite frankly, you can tell how even something like "Minds Are Controlled" is so much more interesting from a songwriting and compositional standpoint than most of the Municipal Waste originals.

Overall, not bad for a quick little blast of crossover, and especially because of the short running time, I'm glad I didn't have to shell out more than two bucks for it.

Sacram - Far Away (2007)

 

Cost: $1.00

The disc starts out rather mellowly with jangly guitars and ethnic-influenced melodies which I can't decide are more Mediterranean or Middle Eastern sounding. This has me prepped for much more progressive-sounding music, but then the rest of the short track was very straightforward melodic death metal with black metal sounding vocals. The beginning of the title track opens in much the same way (I was leaning a bit more towards it being more Mediterranean in sound), but later in the song there are several sections of clearly Middle Eastern melodies that are very reminiscent of Orphaned Land. The third track is more melodic DM, but they do throw in more of the Middle Eastern stuff towards the end.

The closing track takes on a slower tempo. There are melancholy, doomy-but-not-pure doom elements that remind me a lot of Scandinavian bands, but I also detect a bit of the atmospheric Greek touch--not any overly strong Hellenic influence, but it shares a bit of the undercurrent running through disparate bands like Horrified, Nightfall, Septic Flesh, and Rotting Christ's gothic era. That said, especially considering the type of melodic death here as well as the Middle Eastern melodies, I definitely would not have guessed they were from Greece.

This is a case where I actually wish they had explored the slower and more atmospheric touches in their sound (even going farther into progressive territory--gasp!). It's just a short mCD though, and the melodic DM is competent enough that it doesn't wear out its welcome, and even the small touches of those other elements make it stand out positively. Can't complain for a buck.

A Sound of Thunder - Out of the Darkness (2011)

 

Cost: $2.00

Wasn't expecting much from this. I'm generally not a fan of female vocals in metal anyway, but I was never motivated to check out A Sound of Thunder. I thought many of their themes and aesthetics were kind of corny, and some aspects of the band (including, obviously, the name itself) came off as a extremely contrived attempt to appear highbrow and nerdier-than-thou. Lord Weird Slough Feg, they are not. Also, especially considering they are fairly prolific in terms of releases, I've never seen them get much attention in classic metal circles or in any of the metal media I typically consume. It can't be just me, because as far as I know, this is the only album of theirs to have a non-self-released version (although the one I found in the cheap bin was the independent version and not the Nightmare Rec. press).

Ironically, I think having low expectations meant this made more of an impact. There are certainly plenty of traditional metal influences here, and although they aren't as retro as I would typically associate with the movement, I wouldn't have any issue with them being lumped in as a NWOTHM band. Still, this is hardly pure classic metal worship or '80s emulation, and the band don't hesitate using slicker, more commercial hard rock parts, as well as going the other way and getting pretty thrashy. Viewed solely as an oldschool metal album this would be a pretty big disappointment, but approaching it as a modern power/heavy metal album that blends some old influences with more contemporary elements, it's pretty good.

I have mixed feelings about the vocals. There's no doubt they're very powerful, but also very clean, and I have come to terms with the fact that I prefer metal frontwomen to have some sort of Leather Leone or Betsy Bitch grit to their voice. Her singing works a little better during thrashier parts in conjunction with the higher energy, but I thought her most expressive and emotive singing was a more mellow, restrained style used in the "This Too Shall Pass" ballad and a few other places. All that said, the best vocals on the entire disc are John Gallagher's guest appearance on "Out of the Darkness," which just made me keeping thinking how much more awesome the album would have been had he sung everything. 

Finally, not a real complaint or anything, just an observation. The beginning of the album seems to contain all the material that has more overt '70s Priest and Rainbow influence in the guitarwork, while the latter half of the album has the more mid-paced, galloping, and/or epic material that has more obvious Maiden/Manowar influences.

Worth the 2 bucks, and I'd even be open to revisiting this once in a while or checking out some of their other releases. It's not bad. But I also found myself asking if A Sound of Thunder was preferable to female-fronted bands that took a far more purist/traditionalist approach to metal, even if that admittedly made them more generic soundwise (I was specifically thinking of something like Savage Master). The answer was definitely no.

Power from the Vault compilation (1997)

 

Cost: $2.00

Wasn't expecting much from this, although one band in particular necessitated me picking this up.

 

The tracklisting swaps the order of Amboog-a-lard and Raped Ape, so the song order below is correct. Should add this CD only has the tracklist on the disc face and nowhere on the inserts, which is a layout/design choice I absolutely hate. It's only barely excusable if the CD doesn't have inserts or paperwork to put a tracklisting on, like say a promo or magazine pack-in disc.

 

1. L.U.N.G.S. - Mess Around (clean version)

2. L.U.N.G.S. - Kick the Can

3. L.U.N.G.S. - Around (I assume F**k around?, Mess Around explicit version)

I only know these guys because back in the mid-'90s, Pavement Music sent me a L.U.N.G.S. cassette single one time when I placed an order. While I consider nu-metal to be just some sort of heavy alternative rock with varying degrees of hip hop influence in the vocals, this has a dedicated rapping frontman, so it both leans more into the rap side (like Stuck Mojo) and the music, even if not totally metal, is at least somewhat groove metal adjacent. The two versions of "Mess Around" remind me of Biohazard during their Onyx collaboration days, while "Kick the Can" is full-on rap, just with some lead guitar in the backing track.

 

4. Raped Ape - Easy Way Out

5. Raped Ape - Self Made Man

Ugh. Their inclusion was the main reason I even bought this disc, but these aren't even technically Raped Ape tracks, they're from the 1995 Paingod demo (these 2 tracks were recorded in a different session from the rest, so perhaps they were originally intended to be Raped Ape songs. But the disc mentions the band name change, so no idea why the RA name and logo are used here).  Hardly anything of the thrashy Raped Ape sound left, as they went full in on groove metal. Huge disappointment.

 

6. Amboog-a-lard - The Wounded

7. Amboog-a-lard - Alone

While somewhat familiar with the band, I wasn't particularly interested with their inclusion here since I assumed they had gone in a completely weird and/or trendy direction. So I was very pleasantly surprised that these songs are still pretty similar to their earlier full length. '90s thrash with deep vocals that are sometimes nearly guttural. Both tracks use limited sound samples and have some minor progressive touches, but it's nowhere near their weirdest or most avant-garde as a band. Among other thrash bands they'd probably come off as a slightly quirky oddity rather than anything all that great, but on a compilation like this they shine.

 

8. Excessive - Spiritual Bliss

9. Excessive - Bored

10. Excessive - Manhole

First two tracks are a mishmash of rock, groove, and thrash elements. There are definitely metal influences in the mix but the songs don't give off an overwhelmingly metal vibe. "Manhole" is a punkier song. 

 

11. Quit - Remember

12. Quit - Did You?

13. Quit - Where Were You?

Pop punk. "Remember" has a pleasantly unexpected proggy mellow section in the middle. 

 

14. Bone China - I Think It Works

15. Bone China - Aliens

16. Bone China - Crystal Carry

The first two tracks are kind of oddball/quirky hard rock (especially "I Think It Works" could pass for a short Mike Patton-era Faith No More or even a Scatterbrain track).  "Crystal Carry" has a heavier, groovy swagger. Some definite metal influences in the guitars but they come off like a hard rock band.

17. In Your Face - Treading Water

18. In Your Face - Mother

19. In Your Face - Monkey

'90s hard rock, maybe even with some vague similarities to Bone China. The first two tracks have pretty impressive guitar solo sections, especially the very progressive sounding one in "Mother." 

 

20. Opposite Earth - Always Now

Kinda Sabbathy progressive metal with a thick, somewhat doomy guitar tone. In the company of other good bands this would be perfectly ok but probably not stand out as much. Here, it's one of the saving graces of the disc.

Demon Dog Sperm - Hopeless (2007)

 

Cost: $1.00

Figured I'd take a chance on this for a buck. The band name and cover art had me thinking some sort of stoner, doom, or hard rock, but the cursive script in the layout and the floral pattern on the back of the booklet made me think hardcore/metalcore. No band pic to aid me, either. 

The first track is very thick, rumbly sludge metal. I wasn't a huge fan of the ultra-forced guttural vocals, but they fit the music well enough. A sludge album wouldn't have been my first choice, but if the rest of the disc had been in the same vein as the opener, I would have been ok with it.

Unfortunately, rather than sticking consistently with straightforward sludge, there's a tendency to explore their stoner and groove metal influences with bouncy, chuggy riffs. Admittedly, some of the stoner metal elements are not unwelcome and give the album some variety, but coupled with the vocals, the groove metal parts just feel like generic aggro chugging. They also use secondary clean vocals in several places which come off as weak Southern metal vox, and I'm even less of a fan of these than the forced gutturals.

Also, just as a warning to anyone interested in checking out the band, I've seen an online review and some online shop descriptions paint this as some sort of stoner metal/death metal hybrid. I assume this is coming from the "growled vocals automatically equals death metal" crowd. Aside from the most superficial of similarities like extreme vocals (I neglected to mention they use a third type of BM-style backing vox in a few places) and downtuning, the more swarming guitar parts in "Dead Heart" are the only thing on this entire CD that could possibly be considered a tangible influence from death metal.

For just a dollar, not a big deal. Seriously doubt I'm ever going to relisten to it, though.