Ride in the Underground 3 compilation (1995)

 

Cost: $3.00

Split CD of some obscure German bands. Bought this for one reason only...

S.A.S.T.

Rap rock. The harder edged stuff is more Rage Against the Machine style, but a lot of it sounds like mainstream '90s alternative rock with rap vocal sections. 

 

White Heat

"Rough Days" and "Incorruptibility" are swapped on the tracklisting. Their first track, "Rotten to the Core," is some sort of groove metal, and I was mildly amused that the vocal pattern for the chorus very vaguely sounds like the Overkill song of the same name despite the completely different music. I was even more amused that the harsh main vocals made me think of Gerre from Tankard having a tantrum and screaming at the top of his lungs. The other songs have rap vocal sections that give them more of a Biohazard feel, especially "Jump in the Rumble." 

 

Souls of Doom

Yes, even if you are on a split CD of '90s trend crap, if you look like an actual metal band in your pics, I will find you (thanks for wearing the Vader shirt!). First track is good mid-paced death metal with typical guttural vox (maybe a slight touch of van Drunen to them). The subsequent songs add faster, thrashier sections and seem more varied. The second song also introduces a snarlier Jeff Walker vocal style (because of the time frame, it might have very well been more of a black metal influence), and in the thrashy "Depressive Aggressions" there are even quite Mille-sounding vocals.

 

All of the songs are good, but let's not pretend they're amazing unknowns. It's nowhere in the league of any of the classic '80s/'90s death metal cornerstones, but they're not wallowing in mediocrity either. Many people tend to think of the US and Sweden as being the only ultra-prolific death metal scenes, completely overlooking how saturated the German scene was with indie DM bands from the mid to late '90s. Having heard a fair amount of that stuff, this is definitely above average.  

 

Impact Squad

The band name obviously sounds like something more appropriate for groove/aggro stuff. The first three sample-laden tracks are, respectively, punky alternative, alternative rock, and then a ska track. Then the comparatively heavier riffing and more melancholy feel of  "Crumbled Page in My Diary" makes it feel more like a somewhat metallic gothic rock song. 

 

Red Ink 

I vaguely remember hearing some of this band's material before, and it too modern, groovy, and industrialized for me. I assume it's considered to be in the Neue Deutsche Härte. They only get a single track here which is pretty straightforward gothic metal, aside from the "extreme" section during the solo that has angrier-sounding vocals. It's heavier and more interesting musically than the three non-metal bands, but had Souls of Doom not been on the split, I wouldn't have bothered picking it up for just this track.

Dryline - Reach for the Surface (2006)

 

Cost: $2.00

Let's not pretend this is going to be some surprise gem. Taking the bandname, aesthetic, sepia-toned cover, and year of release into account, this isn't a question of whether the CD is any good, it's a question of just how bad it is. 

My initial prejudices softened a little during the first track, because their music does lean way farther into the melodeath-influenced side of metalcore than I would have assumed. Unfortunately, there's still a fair amount of hardcore influence in the music and its breakdowns, and later songs incorporate emo-ish clean vocalled sections so they can incorporate the good ol' harsh/clean contrast dynamic. It seems especially silly of them to even bother when the acoustic interlude "Needless to Say" is easily the most emotive thing on the album. The main vocals aren't super aggro in their delivery, but not great either and feel very dry.

Due to the melodic DM edge in the guitarwork, this is marginally better than the bands I assume are the main influences here (think of the bands that incorporate the word "dies" or "dying" into a 3-or-4 word band name), but they still feel derivative enough where pointing out hypothetical highlights if they tweaked their sound a bit seems pointless. Yeah, they clearly sit on the more metal side of the fence, but enough elements from the more commercial side of metalcore are included here to keep this a few steps away from better bands doing more overt Gothenburg-inspired music. 

Would have felt better paying 50¢ for this. Some songs are tolerable, and for its genre, it doesn't quite scrape the bottom of the barrel.

The Devil's Blood - Fire Burning (Rock Hard version) (2011)

 

Cost: $1.00

 

Just to be clear, this is the 6-track version of the EP that came bunded with Rock Hard magazine, not the regularly released version. Only the first 2 songs are the same, and a different set of Party San live tracks are included.

 

I was aware of the band, but had never checked them out before. Knew they were considered occult rock, but at least on these songs, they often feel more like a straight up retro-hard rock band dabbling with some eviler and more esoteric influences. I was kinda surprised how light this goes on overt Coven/Black Widow/etc. worship based on the bits and pieces I had read about their sound. Most notably, it's lacking the '70s guitar tone, and I thought the amount of weirdness and psych rock influence here was comparatively minimal. Just compare this to something like Norrsken and some of the Witchcraft material, or most of the non-vintage Black Widow Records signees.

 

All that said, I don't think it's bad at all, just different (and honestly, probably a tad less unique) from what I was expecting. The vocal lines and harmonies are extremely well done. While it is lacking that very live-wire and unsanitized '70s guitar tone, and I don't consider them to be an emulation of any kind of proto-metal sound, a lot of the dual guitar attacks and various licks have quite a NWOBHM feel to them.

 

Not my favorite kind of thing, but there are definitely some appealing moments, and it was well worth the dollar.

Terrible Silence CDs

 

Cost: 99¢ each

 

Terrible Silence - Legacy of Silence (2006)

Terrible Silence - Regent (2012) 

 

Knew absolutely nothing about these, but the band name and logo caught my eye initially. I think I would have ended up buying these anyway, but seeing a dedication to Quorthon in the booklet of Legacy of Silence immediately sealed the deal on me getting these. Seemed like that would make them a pretty safe bet...

 

Sadly, these discs were total letdowns. It's quite hard to describe the music, even in very broad terms. It mixes various forms of rock (alternative, hard, and maybe some minor prog. influence in places), but there's definitely a metal undercurrent that mostly comes from the guitars. While it's hard to find any semblance of full-on, unambiguous metal without the rock elements, almost everything has a certain amount of guitar heaviness and metal influence. There aren't any direct extreme metal influences, but a couple parts made me wonder if gothic metal was a conscious influence on the sound. One song had riffage that reminded me a little of "Sad But True," but I was so disinterested I didn't even bother noting which track it was! Overall, the music feels extremely unfocused, like the spitballing of musical ideas without much editing or quality control. Also, even taking the music for what it is, nothing struck me as musically impressive.

 

The Regent disc is actually a reissue of an earlier 1998 cassette album with a live bonus track added, and a couple of songs appear across both CDs. Legacy of Silence seems marginally heavier, and because there aren't any big stylistic differences, I assume it's mostly due to the production. The Legacy of Silence version of "Tears" is the one track I'd feel most comfortable calling full-on metal--of a simplistic, rumbly, and semi-thrashy sort. Oh well, better luck next time.

Revenge - Titties-N-Beer (2006)

 

Cost: $2.00 

 

This is the same band put out the self-released First Blood LP way back in 1987. All of the major problems they had on that old LP still persist here, which was somewhat amusing at first before being largely disappointing. The main issue is how much of their material is firmly on the hard rock side, with most songs having little tangible metal influence aside from the solos. There are numerous references to rocking and rolling in the lyrics, and it's clear they thought of themselves as more of a rock band. While I have no qualms with that if that's what they want to do, their old website refers to them as '80s style metal, so I don't feel bad about judging them harshly for not being particularly heavy. 

 

As on the old LP, the music comes across as overly garage-y, underproduced, and simplistic. The musicianship isn't even particularly bad, but the amateurish, uninspired songwriting leaves a lot to be desired. I'm fully aware that recordings can have a certain DIY charm, but because the music here is so rock-based, didn't find that to be the case here. I suppose a minor positive is that the raw guitar tone coupled with relatively prominent and quite rumbly bass make the music seem marginally heavier than it really is. Also as with the '87 album, I'm not a fan of the female vocals (the husband/wife team in the band trade off on lead vocal duties), as they come off as way too saccharine.

The heavier tracks are saved for the back half of the disc. "Jack the Ripper" isn't quite as heavy as I hoped based on the title, but on an album like this, I'll take what I can get. Plus, the chorus is still pretty decent. "The Wolves" was one of the heavier tracks on the first album, so I'm pleased to see it re-recorded and included here. The tempo is slower than the original, but it benefits from less over-the-top vocals and the heavier Titties-N-Beer guitar tone.

 

Although I wasn't impressed by most of the other original songs, the hard rocking simplicity works for the title track, which ends up being a fun little lewd anthem. The Wrabit, Nick Gilder, and Cheap Trick covers on the first half of the CD also come off quite well. I think the "Hot Child in the City" cover is the one place where the female vocals make sense, and the extra line they added to the end of the song certainly doesn't hurt.

T.O.M.B. - Macabre Noize Royale (2007)

 

Cost: $2.00

Didn't have particularly high expectations for this disc, as I was already vaguely aware they were some sort of black metal/noise or black metal/industrial mix. More importantly, Jack Gannon, the guy behind T.O.M.B., was the vocalist for the post-Rotting in Hell Deteriorate material, when they made the extremely unfortunate stylistic choice of shifting to a black metal sound.

I was prepared for something much more extreme and harsh noise-influenced, but this wasn't nearly as sonically abrasive as I feared. The amount of musical variety here was also a bit surprising. Yes, the noise genre is an obvious component to the sound, but many tracks tread in dark ambient or death industrial territory. There are martial influences in some of the more rhythmic tracks, as well as minor touches of power electronics in spots. It's odd, because I went in expecting some basic similarities to the early Abruptum albums, but the general feel of the disc reminds me much more of the ambient Casus Luciferi despite its lack of metal. Make no mistake though, there's plenty of black metal here, of the noisier but not incompetently lo-fi variety. In this context, it works well as a break from all the noise/ambient stuff, but if the BM elements of the music were isolated, it wouldn't be a particularly impressive example. 

Worth what I paid but not something I'm likely to return to.

Circle - Tulikoira (2005)

 

Cost: $2.00

I had never heard of these guys until after the Thor reissues on Ektro Records came out, exposing me to some of the other bands on the label roster. No surprise they flew under my radar, because even though they've been super prolific since starting in the early '90s, most of their material seems to be more prog. and psych-rock oriented with smatterings of metal/metal adjacent influences. Several years ago they actually leased out the band name to a completely different lineup who apparently recorded a death metal album, but alas, I've yet to hear anything from it. 

This particular album intrigued me since they were using the "New Wave of Finnish Heavy Metal" tag and in one instance, I saw it described as a mashup of '70s Judas Priest and psychedelic rock. Obviously my brain knew the music was going to fall far short of the lofty expectations any Priest comparison creates, but I was still very interested in hearing it. And again, we have something weird enough to get a track by track:

1. Rautakäärme 

This boils down to a minimalist ambient track broken up by two fast metallic sections, the second of which has soft, almost moaned vocals. I do agree with comments I've seen that these metal sections are very black metal sounding in approach, although I think it's stupid to assign any black metal tag to the band's sound as a whole.

 

2. Tulilintu

The "normal" song of the bunch, being the shortest at just under 4 min., and the most straightforward. In a retro late '70s metal/hard rock vein, although it feels punkier during the intro because of the gang shouts. The vocals remind me a lot of a Finnish version of Kai Hansen's Walls of Jericho vocals, and more specifically, some of the vocal patterns and mannerisms in this song make me think of the "Phantoms of Death" vox.

 

3. Berserk

Nothing heavy here, just a quirky and atmospheric 8 min. track with a lightly pulsing main riff. Feels kinda cosmic/psych-rock sounding at times due to the somewhat whale song-sounding guitarwork.

 

4. Puutiikeri 

This has a promising start, with about 3 min. of a recurring mid-paced anthemic riff that manages to be vaguely reminiscent of both "Holy Diver" and "Metal Gods" at the same time. I can't tell if the soft vocals are supposed to be emulation of an old man voice or a drunkard. Most of the rest of the 24 min. track (they heavy it back up for the last 20 seconds) is low-key and similar to "Berserk"--more on the atmospheric and ambient side, with random guitar effects, limited electronic effects, and strange vocal mutterings.

I found this to be quite underwhelming, although it's more odd than it is outright disappointing. It doesn't give me the feeling of having absolutely wasted two bucks like some discs do. But the heavier parts here feel woefully underdeveloped, and there's not nearly as much prog/psych/krautrock influence as I was expecting. The music feels way too lightweight and minimalist to justify the longer song lengths. Still, this wouldn't dissuade me from checking out some of their other material in the future.