Farewell from the Gallows - Luck of the Draw (2012)

Cost: $1.00

There was little doubt this was going to be -core of some type (yes, yes, say what you want about dressing and expressing yourself however you want, but gauged ears and hipster looking members generally aren't a good sign if you're wanting to hear actual heavy metal), but I spent the buck as a precaution.  I was ultimately pissed off because the word "metal" is part of the band's facebook link...That helped push me towards buying this, especially since it was an indie release with no label info and no thanks list, but it was clearly false advertising.

I suppose this is best labeled as some type of post-hardcore--I hesitate to even call this metalcore.  They follow the typical formula of contrasting extreme and mellow material (both musically and vocally), but the disc is only EP-length, and they go a bit overboard with the clean vocalled melodic sections. I found nothing particularly compelling or interesting about the -core sections either.

Tattoo the Earth: The First Crusade compilation (2000)

Cost: $1.00

I paid $1 solely for the live version of Slayer's "Chemical Warfare."  Yeah, there are newish Slayer/Sepultura songs and a Nashville Pussy track, but who cares?  This is similar in concept and excecution to the Ozzfest compilations (i.e., filled with nu-crap and rock) and just as terrible.

Rosanna's Raiders - Clothed in Fire (1989)

Cost: $1.00

I originally saw this in the regular racks and even debated buying it (thinking it was rarer than it was), but I'm glad I waited until it was marked down.  Their debut was a little heavier, but they're very much hard rock here.  It's good for what it is, but even an extremely lax classification of heavy metal wouldn't apply to most of this material.  The vocals remind me a bit of Ann Wilson (during Heart's '80s/early '90s stuff) or Ann Boelyn's clean '80s vox. 

El Diablo Ninos - Into the Night (1999)

Cost: $1.00

Date: Aug. 30, 2014

As you can tell from the blog, I don't have a great track record with independent releases.  If something looks like it has a chance of being metal, I will generally buy it to be on the safe side.  Since these are bargain bin discs, taking a chance is no big deal, but let's be honest--most of the time blind purchases end up being disappointments.  This on the other hand, was a total victory.

I will say the silly band name made me hesitate a little even though the layout (in all its pixelated, photoshopped glory) and songtitles looked promising.  I was worried this would just be hard rock, but nope--solid Sabbath and Maiden (especially in the first song) inspired straightforward heavy metal.  I have no problem with the vocals, but they're in a style I would associate more with doom metal, rather than typical traditional HM vox. 

Free the West Memphis 3 compilation (2000)

Cost: $1.00

Only reason I picked this up is that I saw Zeke covered Iron Maiden's "Wrathchild" on it (it's just an ok version, not great).  I don't care about Steve Earle, L7, Tom Waits, etc., so the majority of this tribute is of zero interest to me. The included cover songs may be the most interesting out of the lot, but aren't generally that good.  Nashville Pussy's "Highway to Hell" is only appealing due to the familiarity of the song, and Murder City Devils' version of The Misfits' "She" is phoned in.  Kelley Deal (the chick from The Breeders) does Pantera's "Fucking Hostile"--no love lost for the original, but I find most of these mellowed-out and female-vocaled trying-to-be-ironic deconstructions of aggressive music to be ridiculous.  My favorite track on the whole thing ended up being The Supersuckers' (with Eddie Vedder on vox) cover of X's "Poor Girl," which I even prefer to the original.

I'm hoping the Zeke cover shows up on something else so I can ditch this piece of crap.

The Second Coming: A Millennium Tribute to 80's Hard Rock/Heavy Metal (1999)

Cost: Don't remember, a buck or two

I do appreciate that this is called a tribute to hard rock AND heavy metal, as typically glam and hair bands are casually lumped in together with metal.

As the cover helpfully points out, the hammy and cliche-ridden liner notes are by Martin Popoff (though to be fair, I doubt this was a priority project for him). 

1. American Dog - Under the Blade (Twisted Sister)

I quote: "featuring true rock dudes from Salty Dog and Dangerous Toys."  Except it's only one dude (see how crappy those liner notes are?), who was a touring bassist for Dangerous Toys.  Decent cover.  The vocals aren't bad per se, but they seem kind of unenthused and lack the sneer of the original.

2. Cage - Freewheel Burning (Judas Priest)

Solid, straightforward cover.

3. Southern Rock Allstars - Don't Believe A Word (Thin Lizzy)

The cover clearly says '80s, but this is the first of two '70s songs on here.  Great cover, but I can't decide if I really like the talkbox effects on the guitar or not.

4. Guttersluts - Welcome to the Jungle (Guns N' Roses)

Odd rendition.  The whispered/moaned vocals and the piano accentuations almost give it somewhat of a dark Type O Negative feel during the verses, even though as a whole it doesn't seem terribly gothic sounding.

5. Premonition - I Don't Know (Ozzy Osbourne)

Solid cover, and the Ozzy emulation is pretty darn close.

6. Straightjacket Smile - Photograph (Def Leppard)

Very good cover.  Not necessarily a negative, but the vocals are much less distinct than Joe Elliott's.

7. Wraith - Bang Your Head (Metal Health) (Quiet Riot)

Seems like an okay cover, though I'm not a huge fan of the original.

8. Salvo - Orgasmatron (Motörhead)

Industrialized cover.  The slower tempo could have made for an interesting take on this song, but unfortunately they made the poor choice of putting robotic effects on the vocals.

9. Tempered Steel - Revelations (Iron Maiden)

Yep, the old '80s band.  Decent cover.

10. Detox Darlings - Smash Alley (Faster Pussycat)

Musically okay, but lacks the riotous feel of the original, and despite all the jokes that can be made about the femininity of glam bands, the female lead vocals here just don't have the same amount of sleaziness.  This cover did make me realize how much the main riff sounds like a spy theme.

11. Black Widow - When Heaven Comes Down (Dokken)

This is the female-fronted Maryland band that released a couple of albums.  As with their original material, the vocalist has a strong voice but tends to oversing.  Instrumentally, don't really have anything bad to say about the cover, though Mr. Scary is the only post-debut Dokken I care about.

12. Red Hot - Kickstart My Heart (Mötley Crüe)

If the name wasn't a giveaway, apparently this is an actual Crüe cover band.  Considering that, this is pretty average.

13. O.C.D. - I Love The Dead (Alice Cooper)

Another '70s tune (the liner notes excuse it by noting Alice Cooper was best known in the '80s for "Poison").   Has a much funkier feel, and I agree with Popoff that, at least at the beginning, there's sort of a Butthole Surfers vibe (but then again, he calls O.C.D. "grind merchants").  At first I wasn't into this but the chorus is catchy enough where I rate it as an alright cover.

14. Mudbone - Wait (White Lion)

Not a fan of the original, but okay as a cover.  The guitar solo falls a little short and the vocals are whiny at times.

Medusa Oblongada - Medusa Oblongada (1995)

Cost: 25¢

I was expecting this to be more avant-garde than industrial (which I would have preferred).  This band was made up of members of (the then recently broken up) Viogression.  I do like Expound and Exhort, but this is a radical departure from that so it's pointless to make musical comparisons.

Metal-archives labels this as industrial thrash metal, which seems to be a fair general description, although the amount of industrial influence in the music varies a lot.  The guitarwork is pretty thrashy and at times the drumming is the only industrial element to the music, while they go full-on industrial metal in some places.  Many times there were sections where I thought I would be getting some relief from the industrial sound (beginning of "Galen," for example),  and then it comes back in full force.  The vocals are unfortunately either overly aggro or in the stereotypical industrial metal style with distortion added.

The Viogression/Medusa Oblongada musical trajectory reminds me a lot of Demented Ted/Beyond.  I liked both bands' death metal output but not their later industrialized material.  Their earlier sound had no hints of what they would experiment with later, and the industrial stuff doesn't carry any noticeable influences from their old sound.