What's the best remedy for two days of rather unspectacular finds? Going out CD hunting and scoring big the very next day. Due to the sheer variety of good stuff, I'm tempted to rank this as one of my top 5 bargain bin hauls of all time. A lot of more underground titles in a bigger concentration than I normally see, and lots of nice collection fillers to round out the haul.
A dollar each:
Anagnorisis - Overton Trees
This one was brand spankin' new--no shrink wrap, but it still had that barcode sticky strip across the top. The first half of the album is fast-paced black/death with occasional keyboard use. Well-played and fine for what it is, but nothing particularly special that makes it memorable. For the second half, by no means do they abandon the black/death ship, but there's more of a concentrated effort to add atmosphere and depth to the music beyond the keyboard use. Some slower tempos, slightly progressive parts, and short acoustic/piano parts are used, and the music becomes less monotonous than in the first half of the CD. However, the title track and one other song utilize very Opeth-like clean vocal sections...the mellowness didn't really bother me, but I felt since they were used so sparsely they felt a bit out of place and tended to overshadow everything else. Indeed, a couple minutes after listening to the CD, I could not have remembered a specific riff to save my life, but the style of clean vocal passages sort of stuck with me. So a comparatively minor element of the band's sound was all that really stood out, although that's more than I can say for many bands.
Ironically, when I saw this I felt a weird sense of familiarity even though I was sure I'd never heard the band before. Then I realized I had previously read Teeth of the Divine's bargain bin review. They scored it for 99¢, which I was mildly envious of at the time, so it was oddly fulfilling to snag a cheap copy of my own.
The Autumn Offering - Fear Will Cast No Shadow
Metalcore. Very melodic death metal inspired, but unfortunately they dilute things with breakdowns. The main vocals are growly with additional raspier vocals. That's not so bad. But the band throws in quite a few sections of whiny clean vocals along with clean choral background vocals that would be a better fit for something more emo or in a mainstream modern rock band. I presume these parts are there to create musical contrast, but it's done in such a heavy-handed and awful manner. I wasn't exactly excited about anything this band had to offer in the first place, and the clean vocals just killed it for me. It's too little, too late to save the proceedings, but I'll also mention that Ralph Santolla and Carpharnaum's Jason Suecof do some guest soloing on the final track.
Black Arrows of Filth & Impurity - 1984 (Eternal)
The "real" material on the CD (well, at least the music that defines the band) is noisy, spastic death/grind. The last two super-long tracks are filled with droning, feedback-laden stuff.
Black Oath - Black Oath
Well, this one completely shattered my expectations, and in a great way. Based on the band name and Christophe Szpajdel logo replete with pentagram, horns, and hooves, I was fully expecting this to be black metal--probably of the generic sort. But it's classic doom metal! No stoner or drone crap to be found. I did look up their place of origin beforehand, but even if I hadn't, I think the vocals would have given them away as Italians...They have an obvious accent and high, almost mournful timbre...They reminded me of Black Hole's vocals to a certain extent, though I must stress the music has nowhere near the amount of Black Hole's creepy weirdness or '70s/psychedelic influence. There is an underlying dismalness to the music which may indeed be an Italian trait of sorts, seeing as it's shared by such disparate bands as Black Hole, Mortuary Drape, old Death SS, even some Necrodeath. What I like most is that the band avoid being monotonous thanks to something taught to us all by Trouble and Candlemass--the best doom metal is made by playing fast at times. The fast part of "Black Initiation" and the accompanying guitar solo (played by Mortuary Drape's Seeker of the Unknown) are excellent. Great little mCD, one of the best finds on this trip.
Fektion Fekler - From Here to Heaven
Electro-industrial stuff. Got this for the trade pile.
Grave - ...And Here I Die...Satisfied
I remember the days when bargain bins were a goldmine for early '90s death metal, but for the past several years those finds have been very sparse. So while it was nice to find this, I admittedly wasn't super excited since I've already owned this mCD for years (and yes, that copy was also a buck!). Otherwise this would have easily been the best disc from the haul.
In Ruins - Four Seasons of Grey
Mix of doom/death and gothic metal.
Iowaska - Vine of Souls
Got this solely because I saw it was on Alternative Tentacles and thought it would make good trade fodder. The label, anarchy circle-A in the logo, and abundance of dreadlocked bandmembers made me think this was going to be Crass-style anarcho-punk or crust, and certainly, that's an element in the music, but it also gets far weirder. The first couple of songs are very psychedelic and spacy-sounding hardcore punk; at times the punk element is overwhelmed and becomes minimal. Then starting at track 6, there are a couple of straightforward anarcho-punk tunes. Oh yeah, I should add that the frontwoman is female--her vocals retain her strong British accent but thankfully there are no "extreme" female vocals, which I usually loathe. For the purposes of this blog, it should be pointed out that there's some heaviness at times, but no more so than any regular anarcho-punk band (there's a sketchy Allmusic review that calls this metal. Huh.). Not a fan of this stuff.
While I appreciate good lyrics, normally a band's beliefs have a pretty minimal impact on my opinion of their music. I wouldn't have minded had the band stayed in typical leftist punk pastures, and the disc does have some anti-cop and anti-war tunes on it, par for the course. But there are also some pagan and feminist lyrics that just take things to eye-rolling levels. One song mentions that there's no need from support from either a man or a bra, since both can be bought. Seriously? The last track is a spoken anti-war piece, and afterwards there's a hidden spoken word track describing African female genital mutilation. I found myself hoping music would start suddenly and it would turn into a grindcore song.
Opera IX - The Call of the Wood
Original Miscarriage press, without a doubt the prime find of the day. I will admit this is a case where I was more excited about finding something for just a dollar than the actual music (which is fine for what it is, though)--black metal usually makes up a relatively small percentage of my local bargain bin finds, so it's always nice to find some, especially older releases like this.
Ozzy Osbourne - Tribute
Older CBS press (I already have the 2002 reissue). Was a little surprised to find this--in all my years of CD browsing, this is the very first time I've seen a pre-Zakk era Ozzy CD in a bargain bin. Nothing wrong with it condition-wise either, so it wasn't put in there for being a beat up copy. It's just now after getting this I've realized that with the "Dee" outtakes, every song from the first album is on here. Huh.
Redencion 9-11 - 97-01
Hardcore punk from Chile. Trade fodder.
Serberus - Descension
Melodic black/death. I have their earlier CD so it was nice to find this for a buck. Well worth the dollar as collection filler.
Solarized - Driven
Stoner rock.
Undor - I
The very first disc of that day's soon-to-be rather sizeable stack. Truthfully, even if I hadn't found anything else at all, I would have been pretty happy just to get a Bestial Burst release for a buck. Based on the layout alone, I was fully expecting raw black metal. Instead, I get a single slow, plodding tempo for the duration of the entire single 27+ min. track, guitar feedback everywhere, and hysterical shrieking/howling vocals that tiptoe the line between demented and exaggeratedly comical. A very fitting comparison would be a lo-fi version (due to the lack of extra musical effects) of the first 2 Abruptum albums. The music itself is quite similar, and I would assume their goal is exactly the same--making cacophonous music on purpose to evoke a crazy, evil atmosphere. This largely succeeds, though there's one flaw--in comparison, Abruptum's music (heh) is much more unstructured as a whole, since they would often go out on weird tangents or segue into more ambient stuff (and I still find them tedious at times). With Undur, the same plodding riff and drum beat essentially lasts for the entire mCD-length running time, with spontaneity only provided by the feedback and vocals. That said, the band would probably be pleased that I found this monotonous after a while.
Vanderhoof - Vanderhoof
This is a side project of Metal Church's Kurdt Vanderhoof which I've wanted to check out for a while, and even came close to buying online a few times, but never did. Rather than metal, the bulk of this is '70s style hard rock with a Hammond organ, ala Deep Purple or Uriah Heep. Some songs sound more authentically '70s than others (there are some decidedly non-'70s grooves thrown in at times), and likewise, the heaviness varies--at times the guitars are quite heavy but there's not much here that can be unfalteringly classified as heavy metal. There is also a very well done cover of Deep Purple's "Burn" which is more interesting than any of the band's original material. There's nothing inherently wrong with this CD and I could praise them for being inspired to do music like this, but I can't see myself revisiting this. I'd rather just listen to an actual '70s band to get my fix of the style.
Waifle - And The Blood Will Come Down Like a Curtain
Expected this to be pissed-off hardcore, but it's more like some sort of dark and chaotic emo. The music itself isn't very metallic, but the first track had a sort of discordance that reminded me of black metal, especially with the vocals.
Various - The Heralds of Oblivion Vol. 1
Because one can never have too many copies...
Various - Infernal Gathering - The Second Chapter
A compilation of bands from Inferno Festival (bands that played at the fest, not actual live recordings from the fest). Ironically, the two tracks marked exclusive (by Dimension F3H and Pawnshop) are the two least metallic tracks here. The only reason I got this was for 1349's cover of "Haunting the Chapel," which I had no idea was even on CD or available somewhere besides the double-LP version of Beyond the Apocalypse (it's not listed as an exclusive track). Very good cover even considering the black metal vocals are a big step down from Araya's, and it goes without saying that I prefer the cover to any of 1349's original material.
Friday, May 6, 2016
Friday, April 15, 2016
June 20/21, 2013 finds
Not my worst CD-hunting day, but not a particularly one great either...Especially since these finds were completely overshadowed by my finds on the 22nd, which I'll cover in a separate post.
A scant two finds at the first store I hit:
Built for Speed: A Motörhead Tribute - $1.00
A Victory Records tribute to Motörhead. I had seen this disc before over the years but since I wasn't terribly enthusiastic about the prospect of hardcore/punk covers, I was hoping to eventually snag it in a bargain bin. When I found it I had honestly sort of forgotten about it. On to the track breakdown:
1. Blood for Blood - Ace of Spades
Dumb intro. The additions and tweaks they add to the song are silly and in bad taste, especially the slow breakdown...However, I've heard extremely sloppy live renditions so amazingly it's not the worst version I've heard.
2. Groovie Ghoulies - R.A.M.O.N.E.S.
Very punkish. The pop-punk/rockabilly sort of vocals are weak and really hurt things.
3. Integrity - Orgasmatron
Kind of odd to hear Dwid's approximation of Lemmy's gravelly voice at first. The cover is well-played but seems very lethargic. The original is more energetic and heavier to boot.
4. Dropkick Murphys - Rock and Roll
Pretty much how I expected, though the guitarwork is simplified from the original. Kudos for their song choice, at least.
5. Skarhead - Sweet Revenge
No "Hello, victims!"???? Ultra-forced vocals? Dumb shout-outs during the song? This cover never had a chance...
6. Electric Frankenstein - We are the Road Crew
Best cover by far.
7. Chrome Locust - Metropolis
Music - very good. Vocals - not so good.
8. Zeke - I'll Be Your Sister
Pretty good, probably the second best track on here.
9. Fahrenheit - No Class
I can't tell if the vocals are slightly out of tune on purpose or not. They don't help, in any case.
10. Terra Firma - Bomber
This is one of those done-in-a-totally-different-way-for-ironic-or-comedic-effect covers. In this case, a mellowed out version. From a technical standpoint I guess it's okay but the joke wears thin quickly.
11. Speedealer - Motörhead
Decent cover, the vocals tend to be a little spastic, though.
Lanfear - The Art Effect - $1.00
Progressive power metal.
Then I headed to a used CD/DVD liquidation sale. Did find some discs, but nothing super. I was slightly disappointed I came away with so little stuff considering the amount of CDs there and the time spent going through them:
The Banner - Each Breath Haunted - $1.00
Screamy hardcore. Hardly anything in the way of metallic influence here considering the layout style and label (Ferret).
Blackmore's Night - Winter Carols - $2.00
A pure novelty purchase, made because a) I know who Ritchie Blackmore is, b) I was getting tired of finding very little at the sale, and c) it was in excellent condition. I really have nothing positive or negative to say since this is so out of my musical league, although with the female vocals and medieval/renaissance nature of the carols I was reminded a bit of Loreena Mckennitt or some of the new age Celtic music that's out there. This is a disc my mother would enjoy more than myself. Now if only Halford's Christmas album would show up in a bargain bin...
Hellnation - Fucked Up Mess - $2.00
This was the next to last disc I picked up...At the time, I thought this was going to be my best find, which reiterates how disappointing this sale was. Hardcore punk played at hyperfast speed. I've seen them classified all sorts of ways, though during the brief occasions they play slower, things can be positively identified as punk based music. Those are rare, however, as this is a quite short and relentless CD. Even though the vocals are screamed out wildly and unintelligibly, I can still hear a certain punk snottiness in the voice. So should this be properly classified as grindcore? Powerviolence? Feel free to argue whichever way you want, but it will most likely take you longer than the 25 min. playing time (also keep in mind that includes the final 10 min. track which has about 9 min. of silence).
Hindrance - Rebirth - $2.00
The best find of the sale, which I almost completely overlooked. After going through everything, my finds weren't that great, so I was backtracking, trying to find a Queens of the Stone Age CD I had passed on during my initial perusal. Never did find it again (there were two overly talkative morons there who felt compelled to loudly discuss and banter about discs they saw--one of them probably snagged it), but I did happen to notice this. I saw the Hecatombe logo and was instantly consoled. Your standard death/grind (the creepy piano intro to "Wake Up the Decapitated" is cool, though) with Napalm Death cover. But it was nice to find something more underground at the sale. By the way, the secret track at the end of the disc is "Gordas sin Tetas." It's also on their first album, so I would assume this is a new version, but I'm not completely sure.
The Mighty Nimbus - The Mighty Nimbus - $2.00
This was the very first CD I found at the sale...Would have been nice if I didn't already have it (UPDATE - this was traded away). Bluesy sludge/doom. The cover of St. Vitus' "Born Too Late" is pretty decent, kinda wish the singer would have used his cleaner vox for it though.
Virgin Black - Requiem - Mezzo Forte - $2.00
This was a pleasant surprise. I had only heard of this band in passing and assumed them to be more or less standard gothic doom. I guess the best term for this would be orchestral doom metal, with full blown symphonic and choral parts. Unlike a lot of bands with symphonic elements/influences, this is not just getting by with a keyboard or an added instrument or two...It was recorded with the help of an actual orchestra so the classical element of the music is extremely powerful and well-executed. This album evokes a really somber mood--good stuff.
A scant two finds at the first store I hit:
Built for Speed: A Motörhead Tribute - $1.00
A Victory Records tribute to Motörhead. I had seen this disc before over the years but since I wasn't terribly enthusiastic about the prospect of hardcore/punk covers, I was hoping to eventually snag it in a bargain bin. When I found it I had honestly sort of forgotten about it. On to the track breakdown:
1. Blood for Blood - Ace of Spades
Dumb intro. The additions and tweaks they add to the song are silly and in bad taste, especially the slow breakdown...However, I've heard extremely sloppy live renditions so amazingly it's not the worst version I've heard.
2. Groovie Ghoulies - R.A.M.O.N.E.S.
Very punkish. The pop-punk/rockabilly sort of vocals are weak and really hurt things.
3. Integrity - Orgasmatron
Kind of odd to hear Dwid's approximation of Lemmy's gravelly voice at first. The cover is well-played but seems very lethargic. The original is more energetic and heavier to boot.
4. Dropkick Murphys - Rock and Roll
Pretty much how I expected, though the guitarwork is simplified from the original. Kudos for their song choice, at least.
5. Skarhead - Sweet Revenge
No "Hello, victims!"???? Ultra-forced vocals? Dumb shout-outs during the song? This cover never had a chance...
6. Electric Frankenstein - We are the Road Crew
Best cover by far.
7. Chrome Locust - Metropolis
Music - very good. Vocals - not so good.
8. Zeke - I'll Be Your Sister
Pretty good, probably the second best track on here.
9. Fahrenheit - No Class
I can't tell if the vocals are slightly out of tune on purpose or not. They don't help, in any case.
10. Terra Firma - Bomber
This is one of those done-in-a-totally-different-way-for-ironic-or-comedic-effect covers. In this case, a mellowed out version. From a technical standpoint I guess it's okay but the joke wears thin quickly.
11. Speedealer - Motörhead
Decent cover, the vocals tend to be a little spastic, though.
Lanfear - The Art Effect - $1.00
Progressive power metal.
Then I headed to a used CD/DVD liquidation sale. Did find some discs, but nothing super. I was slightly disappointed I came away with so little stuff considering the amount of CDs there and the time spent going through them:
The Banner - Each Breath Haunted - $1.00
Screamy hardcore. Hardly anything in the way of metallic influence here considering the layout style and label (Ferret).
Blackmore's Night - Winter Carols - $2.00
A pure novelty purchase, made because a) I know who Ritchie Blackmore is, b) I was getting tired of finding very little at the sale, and c) it was in excellent condition. I really have nothing positive or negative to say since this is so out of my musical league, although with the female vocals and medieval/renaissance nature of the carols I was reminded a bit of Loreena Mckennitt or some of the new age Celtic music that's out there. This is a disc my mother would enjoy more than myself. Now if only Halford's Christmas album would show up in a bargain bin...
Hellnation - Fucked Up Mess - $2.00
This was the next to last disc I picked up...At the time, I thought this was going to be my best find, which reiterates how disappointing this sale was. Hardcore punk played at hyperfast speed. I've seen them classified all sorts of ways, though during the brief occasions they play slower, things can be positively identified as punk based music. Those are rare, however, as this is a quite short and relentless CD. Even though the vocals are screamed out wildly and unintelligibly, I can still hear a certain punk snottiness in the voice. So should this be properly classified as grindcore? Powerviolence? Feel free to argue whichever way you want, but it will most likely take you longer than the 25 min. playing time (also keep in mind that includes the final 10 min. track which has about 9 min. of silence).
Hindrance - Rebirth - $2.00
The best find of the sale, which I almost completely overlooked. After going through everything, my finds weren't that great, so I was backtracking, trying to find a Queens of the Stone Age CD I had passed on during my initial perusal. Never did find it again (there were two overly talkative morons there who felt compelled to loudly discuss and banter about discs they saw--one of them probably snagged it), but I did happen to notice this. I saw the Hecatombe logo and was instantly consoled. Your standard death/grind (the creepy piano intro to "Wake Up the Decapitated" is cool, though) with Napalm Death cover. But it was nice to find something more underground at the sale. By the way, the secret track at the end of the disc is "Gordas sin Tetas." It's also on their first album, so I would assume this is a new version, but I'm not completely sure.
The Mighty Nimbus - The Mighty Nimbus - $2.00
This was the very first CD I found at the sale...Would have been nice if I didn't already have it (UPDATE - this was traded away). Bluesy sludge/doom. The cover of St. Vitus' "Born Too Late" is pretty decent, kinda wish the singer would have used his cleaner vox for it though.
Virgin Black - Requiem - Mezzo Forte - $2.00
This was a pleasant surprise. I had only heard of this band in passing and assumed them to be more or less standard gothic doom. I guess the best term for this would be orchestral doom metal, with full blown symphonic and choral parts. Unlike a lot of bands with symphonic elements/influences, this is not just getting by with a keyboard or an added instrument or two...It was recorded with the help of an actual orchestra so the classical element of the music is extremely powerful and well-executed. This album evokes a really somber mood--good stuff.
Thursday, April 14, 2016
Punishment - Titanium (1999)
Cost: 99¢
This looked like (and is) a definite dud, but hey, it was cheap, so I took the chance. Initially this looked like it might be some sort of industrial release due to the band name, album title, font of the band logo, and the picture on the back insert (some plastic tubing).
The inner liner notes made it painfully obvious this was probably either going to be nu-rock or some sort of groove-laden modern thrash at best. I quote a group of bands mentioned in the thanks list, which pretty much says it all: "Korn, Sepultura, Machine Head, Crowbar, Pantera, Stuck Mojo, Seven Dust." Yeah...
I was quite surprised by the first song, since it seemed to have some death metal influence. Unfortunately that was mainly because of the downtuned guitars, liberal use of growling backing vocals, and some riffing that was decidedly less groovy than the rest of the album. As the CD goes on it becomes clear that there's little in their groovy, aggro style metal/rock mix to excite the metal fan. Yeah, this isn't the worst I've heard--the vocals aren't as ultra-forced as some and thus less annoying, and they do avoid throwing actual rap parts into the music, but I wouldn't listen to this crap anyway. I should also add that the lyrics are hilarious to read and cringeworthy to hear. Just strings of dopey "motherfucker" and "fuck you" laced toughguy-isms filled with white trash angst, like the worst Pantera lyrics to the nth power (they actually have a song titled "Punk Bitch"). For the facially pierced and tribal tattooed crowd only.
Thursday, March 31, 2016
2015 finds
Originally this was going to be a post about my Sept. 30, 2015 finds, but I mixed some CDs from subsequent trips in together with that stack. So screw it, this will just be a general late 2015 finds post. A buck each unless otherwise noted:
Apocalyptica - How Far CD-single
Single with 4 versions of "Quutamo" (the instrumental and 3 vocal versions in different languages). Not a particularly heavy song even by Apocalyptica standards, but the music is catchy. The vocal versions are superfluous, which is the case with all Apocalyptica material I've heard that has vocals. The singing always tends to be a distraction from the whole concept of emulating guitar-based song structure with cellos.
Arena - Contagious
Progressive rock EP. It's been ages since I've heard them, but this seems a little heavier and less Marillion-y than their earlier material. Still not my cup of tea, so to the trade pile it goes.
Bad Wizard - Free and Easy
Retro rock. The band name (and to a lesser extent, the look of the CD) scream stoner rock, but the major influence here is MC5 and the late '60s/early '70s Michigan rock scene in general. Last track has a very AC/DCish feel.
D.C. Cooper - self-titled
Diverse album with power metal/melodic metal, hard rock, and progressive metal oriented material. The guy is a great vocalist but I've never been overwhelmed by any of the bands he's been involved with. This is more varied than his work with either Royal Hunt or Silent Force and doesn't seem as immediately engaging. The cover of Uriah Heep's "Easy Livin'" is alright but I prefer the more faithful W.A.S.P. version.
Devian - Ninewinged Serpent
Saw this in the $2.50 bin and waited for it to be marked down. Black/death with Legion on vox. I keep seeing this described as having a strong thrash component or being thrashy, which I think is a huge overexaggeration--there may be some thrashy parts here and there but I think the faster sections owe a lot more to older melodic death metal than to thrash. Left no lasting impression on me, but worth the buck.
Die Happy - Volume II
I was hoping for some trace of the Vengeance Rising sound, but unfortunately this is groove-laden hard rock. The style reminds me of the de-glammed early '90s output of a lot of the hair bands.
Embercrow - Blacklight Wanderers
Melancholic/gothic rock. They wait until halfway through the album to bring out limited guttural vox--there's a death/doom part in track 5, and then they're used again on track 9 which feels more like typical gothic doom. Ultimately this seems to fall in a genre-straddling grey area. While the distorted guitars push this towards metal and away from typical gothic rock, I don't think it really has enough characteristics to be classified as metal overall.
Fear Factory - Live on the Sunset Strip
3-track live EP, all songs are from Archetype. Never cared about the band, and this doesn't encourage me to start.
Genghis Tron - Dead Mountain Mouth
Like Opeth before they went full progressive rock or any number of modern bands, this band's gimmick is the juxtaposition of extreme and non-extreme musical styles that are typically considered incongruous. In this case they mix heavier stuff (mostly blasting grindcore) with various types of minimalist electronica.
As the album goes on it really suffers from lowest common denominator syndrome where there are all sorts of various hardcore, metal, and post-rock influences thrown in without any coherence. The track "White Walls" even has a brief intro riff that sounds very black metal (unfortunately it lasts all of 7 seconds). So rather than being some sort of oddball electronica-infused grindcore, the band just cycles through a mishmash of stuff, which some morons will no doubt defend as "open-minded" and "progressive."
All of the vocals are hysterical grind screaming (I actually expected a band like this to foray into more varied/oddball vocals) which gets annoying. Because of this I was able to give the instrumental track "Warm Woods" a more attentive listen. It came off a little bit better than the other material, but
ultimately this comes off as a contrived effort to be weird and unique just to attract gawkers and musically spastic rubbernecks.
Golden Dawn - The Art of Dreaming
This is the Napalm rerelease from 2003. At first, I didn't even realize this was a reissue of the first album due to the new cover, which is an interesting concept but looks like it should be on some gothic band's album (I should add that the original cover isn't really any better).
Fast-paced black metal with lots of atmospheric intros and interludes. These vary in style, but the majority of them are epic or martial sounding symphonic pieces. As a comparison to other Austrian Black Metal Syndicate bands, many of these passages would have fit well with Summoning's music (Dol Guldur/Nightshade Forests era) and they are somewhat similar to a few of the more epic Pazuzu tracks, minus the darkwave influences and spoken word stuff. As I said though, these sections are varied--for example, the intro to "Sub Specie Aeternitatis" quickly turns into EDM.
Unlike the later Golden Dawn albums where there was more integration and mixing of metal/non-metal elements, I like that for the most part, the black metal sections and atmospheric sections are kept distinct and separate here, yet are both done well.
Guapo - Black Oni
No familiarity with the band whatsoever--bought this solely because it was on Ipecac and I figured I could trade it. An extremely dark take on Mellotron-infused '70s prog rock, with some passages even bordering on dark ambient. Interesting stuff.
(In certain ways this reminds me of what I envisioned Goblin to sound like before I actually heard them. With their horror movie soundtrack pedigree, I expected something quite evil and haunting, maybe even a sort of embryonic Death SS/Black Hole style. Instead, most of Goblin's material was rather upbeat and in the vein of comparatively "normal" prog).
Mattsson - Another Dimension
As with the D.C. Cooper album above (of course, I got them in the same trip), extremely varied album. I guess it's easiest to classify it as progressive metal overall, although with a neoclassical/shred edge due to Mattsson's guitar playing, as well as more power metallish and hard rock influences. Björn Lodin on vocals here, and I'm certainly not the first to compare the raspiness of his voice to Rod Stewart.
Meat Hook - Order of the Dragon
No clear indication of what this was. Initially I was inclined to think industrial/ambient/gothic due to the band name, album title, and Vlad the Impaler bio on the booklet's back cover. It looked like there was a chance of metal, as all three bandmembers are longhairs, but there's also a song called "Funky Butt Lovin." I went ahead and gambled on it, but it turns out this is groovy hard rock from '95. Some heavy guitar here and there, but no metal to be found.
Queens of the Stone Age - Go with the Flow CD-single
Never really checked them out before, so this is the first time I've seriously listened to them. I was expecting this to be very Kyuss-like due to the participation of a certain ex-member. Unfortunately it's not, so this ends up being trade fodder.
Thought Industry - Black Umbrella
Have yet to hear the band's first album (fingers crossed it shows up in the bargain bins), but it sounds like it's thrashy enough to interest me. This, on the other hand, is weird, multi-influenced, proggy alt. rock. No thanks.
Tokyo Dragons - Give Me the Fear
The cool comic-style artwork enticed me to check this out. Wasn't quite sure where on the rock spectrum this would fall. It's retro style hard rock. I think they miss out on a lot of opportunities to make the music interesting. They're not horrible, but there's no reason to choose this over the myriad of superior albums available. '70s hard rock is the clear influence here, but they don't emulate the '70s sound to such an overt degree that it becomes a point of interest (except perhaps for "Let It Go"--I don't like the song, but it stands out as being extremely Kiss-like). It's not dirty or heavy enough to be appealing in a metallic way, but it's not catchy or anthemic enough to be appealing in a commercial way. The best song here is easily "Teenage Screamers" for its total Motörhead intro and cool solo section (this CD is in dire need of more Thin Lizzy style harmonized twin guitar attacks). Following track "Ready or Not" is also pretty Motörheadish. Still, not impressed enough to want to hang on to this.
Apocalyptica - How Far CD-single
Single with 4 versions of "Quutamo" (the instrumental and 3 vocal versions in different languages). Not a particularly heavy song even by Apocalyptica standards, but the music is catchy. The vocal versions are superfluous, which is the case with all Apocalyptica material I've heard that has vocals. The singing always tends to be a distraction from the whole concept of emulating guitar-based song structure with cellos.
Arena - Contagious
Progressive rock EP. It's been ages since I've heard them, but this seems a little heavier and less Marillion-y than their earlier material. Still not my cup of tea, so to the trade pile it goes.
Bad Wizard - Free and Easy
Retro rock. The band name (and to a lesser extent, the look of the CD) scream stoner rock, but the major influence here is MC5 and the late '60s/early '70s Michigan rock scene in general. Last track has a very AC/DCish feel.
D.C. Cooper - self-titled
Diverse album with power metal/melodic metal, hard rock, and progressive metal oriented material. The guy is a great vocalist but I've never been overwhelmed by any of the bands he's been involved with. This is more varied than his work with either Royal Hunt or Silent Force and doesn't seem as immediately engaging. The cover of Uriah Heep's "Easy Livin'" is alright but I prefer the more faithful W.A.S.P. version.
Devian - Ninewinged Serpent
Saw this in the $2.50 bin and waited for it to be marked down. Black/death with Legion on vox. I keep seeing this described as having a strong thrash component or being thrashy, which I think is a huge overexaggeration--there may be some thrashy parts here and there but I think the faster sections owe a lot more to older melodic death metal than to thrash. Left no lasting impression on me, but worth the buck.
Die Happy - Volume II
I was hoping for some trace of the Vengeance Rising sound, but unfortunately this is groove-laden hard rock. The style reminds me of the de-glammed early '90s output of a lot of the hair bands.
Embercrow - Blacklight Wanderers
Melancholic/gothic rock. They wait until halfway through the album to bring out limited guttural vox--there's a death/doom part in track 5, and then they're used again on track 9 which feels more like typical gothic doom. Ultimately this seems to fall in a genre-straddling grey area. While the distorted guitars push this towards metal and away from typical gothic rock, I don't think it really has enough characteristics to be classified as metal overall.
Fear Factory - Live on the Sunset Strip
3-track live EP, all songs are from Archetype. Never cared about the band, and this doesn't encourage me to start.
Genghis Tron - Dead Mountain Mouth
Like Opeth before they went full progressive rock or any number of modern bands, this band's gimmick is the juxtaposition of extreme and non-extreme musical styles that are typically considered incongruous. In this case they mix heavier stuff (mostly blasting grindcore) with various types of minimalist electronica.
As the album goes on it really suffers from lowest common denominator syndrome where there are all sorts of various hardcore, metal, and post-rock influences thrown in without any coherence. The track "White Walls" even has a brief intro riff that sounds very black metal (unfortunately it lasts all of 7 seconds). So rather than being some sort of oddball electronica-infused grindcore, the band just cycles through a mishmash of stuff, which some morons will no doubt defend as "open-minded" and "progressive."
All of the vocals are hysterical grind screaming (I actually expected a band like this to foray into more varied/oddball vocals) which gets annoying. Because of this I was able to give the instrumental track "Warm Woods" a more attentive listen. It came off a little bit better than the other material, but
ultimately this comes off as a contrived effort to be weird and unique just to attract gawkers and musically spastic rubbernecks.
Golden Dawn - The Art of Dreaming
This is the Napalm rerelease from 2003. At first, I didn't even realize this was a reissue of the first album due to the new cover, which is an interesting concept but looks like it should be on some gothic band's album (I should add that the original cover isn't really any better).
Fast-paced black metal with lots of atmospheric intros and interludes. These vary in style, but the majority of them are epic or martial sounding symphonic pieces. As a comparison to other Austrian Black Metal Syndicate bands, many of these passages would have fit well with Summoning's music (Dol Guldur/Nightshade Forests era) and they are somewhat similar to a few of the more epic Pazuzu tracks, minus the darkwave influences and spoken word stuff. As I said though, these sections are varied--for example, the intro to "Sub Specie Aeternitatis" quickly turns into EDM.
Unlike the later Golden Dawn albums where there was more integration and mixing of metal/non-metal elements, I like that for the most part, the black metal sections and atmospheric sections are kept distinct and separate here, yet are both done well.
Guapo - Black Oni
No familiarity with the band whatsoever--bought this solely because it was on Ipecac and I figured I could trade it. An extremely dark take on Mellotron-infused '70s prog rock, with some passages even bordering on dark ambient. Interesting stuff.
(In certain ways this reminds me of what I envisioned Goblin to sound like before I actually heard them. With their horror movie soundtrack pedigree, I expected something quite evil and haunting, maybe even a sort of embryonic Death SS/Black Hole style. Instead, most of Goblin's material was rather upbeat and in the vein of comparatively "normal" prog).
Mattsson - Another Dimension
As with the D.C. Cooper album above (of course, I got them in the same trip), extremely varied album. I guess it's easiest to classify it as progressive metal overall, although with a neoclassical/shred edge due to Mattsson's guitar playing, as well as more power metallish and hard rock influences. Björn Lodin on vocals here, and I'm certainly not the first to compare the raspiness of his voice to Rod Stewart.
Meat Hook - Order of the Dragon
No clear indication of what this was. Initially I was inclined to think industrial/ambient/gothic due to the band name, album title, and Vlad the Impaler bio on the booklet's back cover. It looked like there was a chance of metal, as all three bandmembers are longhairs, but there's also a song called "Funky Butt Lovin." I went ahead and gambled on it, but it turns out this is groovy hard rock from '95. Some heavy guitar here and there, but no metal to be found.
Queens of the Stone Age - Go with the Flow CD-single
Never really checked them out before, so this is the first time I've seriously listened to them. I was expecting this to be very Kyuss-like due to the participation of a certain ex-member. Unfortunately it's not, so this ends up being trade fodder.
Thought Industry - Black Umbrella
Have yet to hear the band's first album (fingers crossed it shows up in the bargain bins), but it sounds like it's thrashy enough to interest me. This, on the other hand, is weird, multi-influenced, proggy alt. rock. No thanks.
Tokyo Dragons - Give Me the Fear
The cool comic-style artwork enticed me to check this out. Wasn't quite sure where on the rock spectrum this would fall. It's retro style hard rock. I think they miss out on a lot of opportunities to make the music interesting. They're not horrible, but there's no reason to choose this over the myriad of superior albums available. '70s hard rock is the clear influence here, but they don't emulate the '70s sound to such an overt degree that it becomes a point of interest (except perhaps for "Let It Go"--I don't like the song, but it stands out as being extremely Kiss-like). It's not dirty or heavy enough to be appealing in a metallic way, but it's not catchy or anthemic enough to be appealing in a commercial way. The best song here is easily "Teenage Screamers" for its total Motörhead intro and cool solo section (this CD is in dire need of more Thin Lizzy style harmonized twin guitar attacks). Following track "Ready or Not" is also pretty Motörheadish. Still, not impressed enough to want to hang on to this.
Shock Rock Hellions - A Tribute to W.A.S.P. (2006)
Most of this makes Dwell's Show No Mercy tribute CD look great, with poor vocal peformances abound. Rather surprised no one took a stab at "I Wanna Be Somebody."
1. Dracena - Animal (Fuck Like a Beast)
Fine musically--I think this song is actually well suited for a more extreme cover. However, it's immediately obvious the vocals are female and they bring things down tremendously.
2. Denial of God - Hellion
First, let me say I have always wished this band's music was better. Tornado was a consistently good 'zine, they made some interesting lyrical theme and cover song choices, and I agree with most of the viewpoints presented in their interviews. Unfortunately, the majority of their music strikes me as mediocre black metal, and they show a disturbing lack of metal sense sometimes (ie pictures on the first mCD).
Anyway, this is a simplified version of my favorite W.A.S.P. song with unenthusiastic BM vocals.
3. Stos - L.O.V.E. Machine
Disappointing coming from such a veteran band. The tempo is slightly slower and makes everything seem off, and the heavily accented vocals are very distracting.
4. Holy Death - Running Wild in the Streets
Seems to have good potential at first, but once those vocals start...I'm not big on the original's vocals, but the croaking/growling here just doesn't work.
5. Ceremonial Castings - Sleeping in the Fire
Starts out corny, with the vocals at the beginning sounding like someone trying to parody a male with a deep voice. Becomes a black metal cover which isn't great but at least feels more enthusiastic than some of the other offerings. It seems like the guitar solos were played on synth, which I was initially going to scoff at, but they're pretty faithfully played and I'll fully admit that it's a wiser choice than attempting a bad guitar version.
6. Blackies - Rock and Roll to Death
This is an Italian W.A.S.P. cover band, so musically the cover is very good even though it's later W.A.S.P. material I don't care about. Unfortunately, this is also an Italian W.A.S.P. cover band with shrill female vocals.
7. Victimizer - Tormentor
Serviceable extreme metal version. Nothing particularly special though, so it's very telling when this is still one of the best songs on the tribute.
8. This Tangled Web - The Headless Children
Fantastic interpretation musically. I think they were going for a doom/death version but it definitely brings Tony Martin-era Sabbath to mind. On the downside, the main vocals are a bit too croaky and hoarse, making me wish they had just used generic DM or BM vocals.
9. Impaler - On Your Knees
Rise of the Mutants had snotty, punkish vocals which were pretty tolerable there. Here they've morphed into lameness with a silly hickish inflection to boot (this should have been listed as "On Yo' Knees").
10. Captain T & Ostronomy - The Real Me
Yeah, technically a cover of The Who (at least the liner notes correctly credit Pete Townshend). The vocals have a definite Paul Stanley vibe to them, although the singer throws in some exaggerated over the top mannerisms which mimic what Blackie does even though he doesn't sound like him. This has much more of a freewheeling rock'n'roll atmosphere than the W.A.S.P. version. As a The Who cover it's pretty good.
11. Crystal Viper - Wild Child
Overall, pretty good, although it's sorely missing the rawness of Blackie's voice.
12. Exekrator - The Flame
Has those stupid shrill vocals a lot of their own material suffers from, which make this sound like a parody version.
Sunday, December 13, 2015
Everything Comes & Goes compilation (2005)
Cost: $1.00
An experimental/indie tribute to Ozzy-era Black Sabbath.
1. Matmos - F/X
Disposable intro track. Replicates the guitar noises of the original with electronic effects.
2. Ruins - Reversible Sabbath
Short medley of drum/bass-only versions of several infamous Sabbath riffs. Midway through the track the entire medley is played through backwards, hence the name. The heaviest and most technically proficient track on here.
3. Grails - Black Sabbath
Twangy, feedback-laden instrumental version. Initially it seems as if it's going to be a fairly minimalist drone or sludge style cover, but they throw a violin in the background and as the song tempo builds it ends up being a very interesting rendition.
4. Four Tet - Iron Man
Acoustic rendition of the main riff over a beat track with minor electronic influences. Mellow and suprisingly pleasant.
5. Curtis Harvey Trio - Changes
Starts off straightforward, but 45 seconds in becomes an acoustic-guitar driven folk/country version. Due to the music style and it being the first track (and one of the few) with vocals, it stands out negatively compared to other tracks. Okay for what it is, but admittedly lacks the melancholic feel the original accomplished with just a piano and vocals.
6. Paul Newman - Fairies Wear Boots
Straightforward garage rock instrumental version. Unfortunately it's sorely missing the Iommi guitar tone and although well-played, has no real novelty that compels me to listen to it again.
7. The Anomoanon - Planet Caravan
No distortion on the vocals and the percussion is much less prominent than on the original. While the original has an extremely psychedelic feel, this is more mellow and spacey.
8. Racebannon - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Could have been interesting, but has noisecore-styled multi-layered snarling/wailing/screaming vocals. Yes, they're discordant on purpose, but too distracting to make the track enjoyable.
9. Greenness w/ Philly G - Sweet Leaf
Sort of a bouncy post-rock version with some electronic effects. Vocals are good but the main riff seems off.
Even with the varying styles the quality level here is generally high. My initial verdict is that this CD comes off a bit better than the typical "genre X covers genre Y" compilations, which are usually just excuses to be overzealously avant-garde or to make musically incongruous covers for irony's sake. While some of the tracks are adapted well, I don't see this escaping the fate of being played only a few times for novelty value. Time will tell.
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
Terminus - Victim Culture (1995)
Cost: $1.00
Here's an ooooold find I bought in the late '90s. Quick background: the guys in Terminus (Peter Johnson and Derek Norberg) were in an early '90s Boston thrash band called Heresy who relocated to California and dissolved at some point.
The music on this mCD is industrialized metal, with the main industrial element being the programmed percussion--there are actually no "regular" drum sounds, it's all repetitive factory sounding noises like the sound of an anvil being struck and various beats, chinks, and clinks. There is also a single instance of sampling, but that's the only industrial. The vocals are fairly generic gruff singing with none of the usual annoying industrial effects or processing, but the vox often have an odd stilted cadence to match the background rhythms. Not unexpectedly due to the members' previous band, the guitarwork is very thrash based. It's a shame because the first song has a nice main riff that would have worked well in a more traditional thrash framework with real drumming.
I don't have much of a tolerance for most industrial "metal" (apart from drum machine black metal of the Helheim and Mysticum variety), so I do appreciate that this only has limited industrial influences and it's listenable. Then again, there are thousands of other bands without the industrial stuff in them that I'd rather listen to...
Reissue of Heresy demos please?
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