Without Face - Deep Inside (2000)

Cost: $1.00

The majority of the music here is progressive gothic metal with dual male/female vocals.  What stands out rather negatively are the occasional "aggressive" parts, which have rumbly, groovy riffs and kinda overly forced vocals that would be better suited for an unlikable '90s thrash band.  This is a relatively minor part of the music, but the core of the music here--the gothic metal--is alright, not great.  With so many gothic metal bands around that utilize this same basic style, I'd rather listen to one that doesn't have the out of place elements.

Random purchases

Here's some random older bargain bin purchases.  Don't remember all of the specific prices, but everything was 2 bucks or under.

Anterior - This Age of Silence - $1.00

Monotonous, super-forced screamed vocals here, which really put me off as they unfortunately make the band seem far more -core sounding than they really are. Other than a few breakdowns and some limited modern groovy stuff, the underlying music seems to be decent lead-focused melodeath, but it's not noteworthy enough to make up for those vox.

Asterisk* - Dogma
Grindcore, compilation of various material.  The majority of the tracks are the noisier sort of grindcore, although individual songs vary and some are a more metallic type of grind.  The short "cover" of Queen's "Ogre Battle" is quite fun even though it becomes barely recognizable after the intro.

Artimus Pyledriver - Artimus Pyledriver - $1.00
Based on descriptions that I read that this was "Southern metal," I was anticipating something more like Alabama Thunderpussy, later CoC, or some of the NOLA bands.  This is more upbeat, less sludgy, and has far more of a rock'n'roll influence than I was expecting, especially since the vocals seem quite Brian Johnson influenced.  I'd say this is more like a heavier Nashville Pussy or a Southern rock influenced Fireball Ministry.

Corporation 187 - Perfection in Pain  - $2.00 
Modern death/thrash.  Everything Swedish in this style inevitably gets compared to The Haunted, although this is more aggressive and has less direct melodic DM influence in the guitarwork, so I hear more general similarities to something like Carnal Forge or The Forsaken.  The vocals are quite vicious but the aggression here doesn't translate into interesting songs, and I don't really see listening to this again.

Ewigheim - Mord Nicht Ohne Grund - $1.00
The logo and band name had me hoping for black metal.  Since this was on Prophecy Prod., I realistically expected something more avant-garde, but this still ended up being pretty disappointing.  This is primarily gothic rock that mixes in electronic rock and some EDM-ish rhythms, some metallic guitarwork, and some Neue Deutsche Härte influences.  Out of the 8 tracks, the title track is the only one that that genuinely qualifies as gothic metal due to the consistent guitar riffage (it also happens to have more extreme vocals).

Masakari - The Profit Feeds - $1.00
Bought this since it was a buck and on Southern Lord, which usually doesn't indicate quality but does usually indicate something metal or metal related.   However, this is crustcore.   Pretty raging stuff, but not up my alley at all.  The first and 9th tracks have low/sludgy sections which I thought the disc could have used more of (probably because they're as close to metal as it gets).

Piss off - Authority - $1.00
Pretty sparse inserts here without a band photo or thanks list, so this was a totally blind purchase. CD is from 2007--I hate the term "alternative metal" (I think it's a complete misnomer) but yeah, this is that sort of heavy '90s rock stuff.  Songs vary quite a bit and their guitar sound is surprisingly heavy at times, but rather than actual metal, it's more like a slightly heavier Godsmack.  Three tracks of note:

1. "Tazer Tag" - Intro skit, hokey but not cringeworthy.  The production is impressive since it legitimately sounds like a zany morning zoo bit from a local radio station. 
2. "U.S. of M." ("United States of Mexico, if you were wondering)  Nice prog. metallish intro.  Unfortunately the rest of the song isn't as good as the intro, although it's probably the most metallic track on here.  I'm not against the anti-illegal immigration message but it's very ham-fisted here...The "THEY'RE BRINGING IN THE DOPE" chant just made me laugh.
3. "If Tomorrow Were Yesterday" - Mellow, atmospheric outro instrumental.  Stood out positively just because it's so different from the rest of the disc.

Rivendel - The Meaning - $1.00 
Based on the record label and band name, was hoping for folk or prog. metal.  Progressive rock.

Sender Receiver - Plague Notes - $1.00
Grindcore.  The songtitles are meant to be cutesy and tongue in cheek, but fall way short of 7000 Dying Rats or Anal Cunt standards (the actual lyrics have nothing to do with the titles and are actually overly melodramatic dreck better suited for emo or metalcore).  Should also add the CD only lasts four and a half minutes--I would have been pretty livid if I'd paid more than a buck for it.

Watchmaker - Erased from the Memory of Man
Willowtip press.  Admittedly I'm not a big grind fan (aside from the usual classic suspects), but this is even less interesting than I thought it would be.  I'd heard quite a lot of hype about them and was expecting something over the top, and while this certainly grinds in a noisy and chaotic way, it falls way short of totally destroying for me.  I suppose I was also expecting them to be more or less pure grindcore along the lines of say, Insect Warfare, but this has quite a bit of noise and crust influence too. 

Asian Typhoon - Wings (2008)

Cost: 99¢

Ok, so this is actually the US re-release of X.Y.Z.→A's Wings album under the less cryptic Asian Typhoon bandname (which was also the name of their first album).  I found it odd the spines read "Asian Typhoon / X.Y.Z.→A" to stress the name change while neglecting the actual album title.

I knew Minoru Niihara was the vocalist beforehand, but didn't realize until reading the liner notes just before listening that Fumihiko Kitsutaka was the guitarist.  That got my hopes up, since Minoru did some guest vocals on Fumihiko's Never Ending Story album, which were the best tracks there.  His guitar playing is the highlight of the CD, and his largely neoclassical style gives the album an extremely strong power metal edge at times, although there's a lot of more rocking material here, and a hard rock undercurrent in general.  I suppose in a general sense, like current Loudness, you could classify it as some kind of contemporary heavy metal, although it doesn't get either as groovy or thrashy/extreme as newer Loudness, and the guitar playing is very different from Akira Takasaki's.  In some ways I'd say this is musically closer to Sly or Niihara's solo stuff than any era of Loudness.

My first impression wasn't that great as the first track is a ballad, and the second has off-putting barked gang backing vocals which are used in a couple songs.  It did grow on me, although the album is a bit uneven at times, and I definitely preferred the speedier/heavier material as a whole.  There is some token Japanese weirdness with "Optimism-Self Therapy"--the verses are essentially spoken word motivational speech/pep talk stuff in Japanese, with a chorus of "Wo wo wo, let's get happy."  Yeah... 

Day of Mourning - Your Future's End (1999)

Cost: 99¢

 

This is an old find (~10 years ago) that I stored away among some other more punk/HC oriented bargain bin finds I was in no hurry to listen to.  In fact, this came from the previous record store that was in the location I get most of my bargain bin discs from now.

 

Metallic hardcore with the distinction of having more guttural vocals, definitely a rarity for this style of music. I generally loathe the traditional HC tough talk/aggro vocals, so this CD was way more enjoyable than I anticipated. Unfortunately, they throw some screaming guest backing vox in (Integrity's Dwid on one track, and Jimmy Bulloch of Ringworm on another), which are easily the worst parts of the disc.  Also gotta commend them for some nice intro/outro samples (Charles Manson and Amityville Horror I & II especially).

Goliath - The Gate (2001)

Cost: $2.00

Nice Sabbathy guitar tone here, but the music is a bit too groovy for my taste, being more doomy stoner metal than pure doom.  Think a general sound that's pretty close to many of Wino's bands apart from St. Vitus and The Obsessed, just with different vox.

Wrekking Machine - Mechanistic Termination (1993)

Cost: $1.99

Don't worry, this is an old find (would suck to only be finding it now when it's about to be reissued).  If I remember right, I got this during my very last visit to the local Wherehouse before they unexpectedly closed.  I recall getting a couple of discs at the time, but the only ones I positively remember are this and a $2.99 copy of Sabbath's Live at Last.  They also had one of those Metal Christmas CD with Paul Di'Anno doing a rendition of "White Christmas" but alas, I didn't pick it up.  I believe this wasn't even in the racks and was in a box of discs (which of course I rifled through) on the side of the store waiting to be shelved.

The band plays technical thrash with some quirky ideas, and there's often a slight crossover feel due to the overall playfulness, the gang choruses, and the slight snarkiness to the vocals.  Think a Bay Area thrash version of old Watchtower.  It's driving me nuts because I keep thinking there's a near perfect vocal comparison to reference, but it's eluding me.  They're clean and high in the way a lot of technical/prog. thrash vox are, but not as high or shrieky or classic metal influenced as say, Jason McMaster.  To a certain extent, the tone and cadence reminds me of the vocals on Vio-lence's "Calling in the Coroner," but I must stress they're nowhere near as crazy as Sean Killian's vocals can get.  Hopefully I'll come up with a better comparison.

Should also add the cover is kind of a shame, as being early '90s CG art (complete with flare effect) it gives false impressions of what the music will be like.  Luckily the band's logo is cool.

Fun useless fact: For years I remembered the song title "Nothin' Ta Do (And All Day Ta Do It In)" (just the title, not the actual music), but not who did it, and thought it was a Forced Entry song for a long time.

June 3, 2016 finds

All of the day's discs were a buck each.

First stop was a book and music sale.  I wouldn't classify any finds there as spectacular, although some of the eclectic finds meant I did better than usual at these kinds of sales.

Apocalyptica - Wagner Reloaded - Live in Leipzig
More compelling than a lot of their later studio material, but that said, I'd just as soon listen to a real Wagner piece than this.

Despair - Pattern Life
Hardcore.  Trade fodder.

The Silverhounds - Nevermore
I bought this solely because a) it was brand new and b) the drummer had on an Adicts shirt, and I thought it might be tradeable punk.  Mix of punk, metal, and psychobilly.  The vocals are a semi-clean crooning (not as Danzig-like as that might imply) closer to something from a horror punk or gothic band.  

I wasn't very optimistic since the album starts out with a heavy chugga chugga riff and upon closer examination the guitarist sports Machine Head and Black Dahlia Murder patches.  On the one hand, I was surprised how much metal influence this showed off at times, although most of it is in the form of modern thrash style riffing which I don't think would be terribly interesting taken out of this context. The one exception is the title track, which has a cool speed metal main riff and some nice soloing.  Not up my alley enough to keep, though.  I can't help but think this is what SuicideGirls/Burning Angel type chicks consider to be metal.

Scythe - The Seventh Day CD-R
Normally I don't bother with CD-Rs, but the price was right.   Wasn't expecting much based on the cheap-looking, silly cover.  In theory, the Grim Reaper giving a sermon could be a cool concept (not as cool as the Grim Reaper crashing through a stained glass window on a motorcycle, though), but it looks like he only attracts the crudely drawn dregs of society to church.  The band logo also looks a little odd, as if they cobbled together letters from various logos including a very plain H.  The S looks suspiciously similar to Sadus'.

The first song starts off deceptively with a slow-paced intro/buildup reminiscent of something off Morbid Angel's "Covenant," so I had no idea what I was in for, but thankfully they settle into orthodox thrashing.  The middle two tracks are the best--the title track reminds me of some of the more underground late '80s crossover-tinged west coast thrash that was prominent after the initial Bay Area explosion had fizzled out.  "The Virus" has more of a Germanic thrash feel--reminds me a bit of the second Vendetta album, maybe?  Their strongest material feels genuinely old and doesn't really have the telltale modern missteps that plague a lot of retrothrash.  I think I would be hard-pressed to identify those middle tracks as being from 2009 if I didn't know beforehand.

Seekers Pass - The Sands of Time
Just looking at the disc, nothing conclusively metal about this, but I went ahead and bought it, realistically expecting it to be prog. rock.  But this turned out to be prog. metal and can be counted as one of my rare successes on a blind purchase.  The main influence here is early '90s Fates Warning, although the mellower sections are definitely more Queensrÿche-ish, and the vocals lean towards being more Tate-like than Alder-like. One disappointment about it, though--the song "Denying Reality" opens with a cool galloping riff (my favorite part of the entire disc) and I excitedly thought it was going to be some Arch-era Fates Warning worship, but it segues into stuff more like the rest of the disc.  Oh well.

Shred Bettie - Born Again
One of the few obvious indie releases at the sale, so I bought it for trade fodder.  Wasn't expecting metal, but the band name made me think it might be retro-hairband type stuff.  Female-fronted rock.

Whitecross - In the Kingdom
Trade fodder.  Just a Christian version of hair band music with the obligatory ballads, even less heavy than their earlier Ratt-ish stuff.  Oddly some of the vocal phrasings give off a Lizzy Borden vibe.

Then went to hit up one of my usual bargain bins, and came away with quite a varied stack of collection filler:

Alcoholics Unanimous - 20 Years of Tanked Up Tunes 
Had never heard of AU before and figured it was punk.  While it is a project of the core duo from Rancid Vat, the gimmick here is drinking songs, both originals and covers, so very little of the music is actual punk.  I found the entire CD of this stuff very tedious, and it's probably material that is best left for novelty EPs or as joke tracks on punk/hc recordings.  Jeff Clayton of ANTiSEEN does vocals for the last couple of tracks (the Dixie Fried EP).

Astra - The Black Chord
70s-style progressive rock.  Knowing nothing about the band, the Metal Blade and Rise Above logos geared me up to expect psychedelic doom or stoner rock.  So even while not metal, I suppose I came out ahead.

Diapsiquir - Virus S.T.N.
Industrial-laden black metal with all sorts of disparate elements added.  I have the 2CD with their demos but I couldn't remember the music, so I had to go back and check if they started out being so experimental.  Their early stuff flirts with some ideas, but this disc just goes overboard.  Certain things I don't mind, like the sampling or their rendition of The Godfather theme, but the vocals (usually shouted-in-French main vocals and several sorts of lame "hysterical" additional vox) and histrionic tangents they go off on feel like failed attempts to seem crazy and schizophrenic.  It just comes off as silly and heavy-handedly avant-garde to me.  When more traditional BM elements show up they are generally appealing (the doomy riff at the beginning of "Organisation Contamination" is probably the best part of the disc), but they're way too sparse.  Glad I didn't have to pay more than a buck for this.

Michael Fath - Suspended Animation
I bought this in case it was (and hoping for) shred, but it's instrumental rock guitar stuff.  There's nothing remotely heavy on the disc until the end (I'll get to that in a minute), but I enjoyed the mellower material on the disc--the classically styled "JoLaurel : Dantz" and the dreamy "In Memory of Little Danny"--more.  Still wouldn't have been a keeper.  However, the store's price tag/UPC label covered up the bottom of the tracklisting, so unbeknownst to me when buying it, the last track turns out to be a cover of "Highway Star."   It's quite a good one at that, so I may hold on to this for now.

Humangled - Odd Ethics
Death metal, just a short mCD.  They play around with a lot of different tempos, even within single songs, but they're not at all technical or progressive like that might imply.  At times they have a groovy, somewhat death'n'roll feel.

In This Moment - Sick Like Me CD-single
Trade fodder.  I was aware of them but had never actually heard their music, and based on their fanbase alone knew this certainly wasn't going to be metal, even if misrepresented as such.  I was actually expecting female-fronted -core stuff, but this is nu-rock (the title track also has some clean-vocalled Evanescence-like sections). 

Lecherous Nocturne - The Age of Miracles Has Passed
For some reason--obviously the initials, duh--whenever I see the band name I initially immediately think of Lestregus Nosferatus, the Hallow's Eve related band that put out a couple of demos.  Generic death metal.  No memorability for me at all.

Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard of Ozz
Old Jet Records press.  I was surprised to see it for just a buck since initially it looked to be in pretty good condition, although when I got home I realized someone initialed the cover.  Oh well, probably would have bought it anyway.  Hadn't listened to the original album in a while (much less an unremastered version) and I honestly forgot a lot of the nuances on it.  I like certain aspects of all of the first 4 Ozzy albums but this is probably the strongest overall.

Ozzy Osbourne - Ozzmosis (2002 remaster)
"Perry Mason" is great of course, and is the last thing Ozzy's done that I've cared about.  Overall No More Tears presented better examples of commercially viable songs and ballads than the material here, and it wasn't even that good of an album.  One of the remaster bonus tracks, "Whole World's Fallin' Down," is marginally better than most of the other songs since it has more of an Ultimate Sin feel.

Pain of Salvation - Entropia
This isn't my preferred type of progressive metal (I prefer the '80s stuff that is basically traditional HM with some minor progressive tendencies--with a huge emphasis on the metal over the progressive), but I liked the album a little more than I expected.  While I appreciate the musicianship and quirkiness here, it's more of an interesting listen than an actively enjoyable one.   This is something I would put on as mellow background music.

Soilwork - The Early Chapters
5-track EP.  Earlier Soilwork is listenable but I never considered them to be one of the better Swedish melodic DM bands, so let's go straight to the 2 covers, which are the most interesting tracks anyway.  Deep Purple's "Burn" is enjoyable instrumentally but the extreme main vox and backing female vox just don't work.  I have the Mercyful Fate tribute disc the "Egypt" cover was originally on and I couldn't even remember their version at all even though I like the original.  It comes off as bland, as if they discarded everything interesting about the song when converting it to a melodic DM style.  They don't attempt to mimic King's vocals, which I'm not necessarily against since it can be treacherous ground to venture in, but obviously they are an integral part of the original song and they don't do anything to make up for that loss.

Stainless Steel - Red Heat Within
Power metal, the day's best find.

Hammer Down: The Tribute to Motörhead 
Crimson Mask Rec. re-release of the Dead Forever tribute originally on Dwell.  I was never able to pick up the original tribute, so I can't complain about finding this for a buck, although it's disappointing the packaging is even more generic now--especially the skull/iron cross artwork (which is a shame considering the Dead Forever cover was at least an attempt at a Snaggletooth homage).

1. Coffin Texts - Steal Your Face
Definitely the best of the extreme-styled covers on here.  While more DM styled vocals aren't the best fit for Motörhead, the rest of the cover compensates.

2. Deceased - Stay Clean
Quite good (of course), musically the closest cover to the original.  Only cover I had previously heard.

3. Hate Theory - Bad Religion
Not awful, but disappointing given the underrated song choice.  Starts out like it might be okay, but has very forced vocals in multiple styles, and adds some needless downtuned chug parts.

4. Acheron - (Don't Need) Religion
Kinda boring.  Not awful though, I was expecting much worse. 

5. Hostile Intent - Ace of Spades
What the hell is this?  Nearly unrecognizable except for the chorus.    It's not like it's bad in a sloppy, off the cuff way either--it sounds like a) the band only casually knew the song and took many liberties with it or b) they couldn't play it and overly simplified it.  Doesn't sound right to begin with, and has awful Anselmo aggro vocals on top of it.  Easily worst cover on here, and as far as I can remember, the worst recorded "Ace of Spades" cover I've heard.

6. Vile - Love Me Like a Reptile
I should point out that most people think the Vile here and on Dwell's Kiss tribute is the CA death metal band, but it's the NYC band.  Doomy/stoner rock version.  Interesting interpretation, but the vocals are a bit too weird and off-putting, particularly the moaned, drawn-out chorus.  Weirdest/most unconventional cover due to the vox.

7. Blood Coven - Deaf Forever
The synth intro made me fear that they were going to try to inject this with corny atmosphere, then the song started and it seemed okay; of course, they show up again for the chorus.  Would have been a decent extreme cover version without the invasive synths and black metal backing vox.

8. Tchort - The Chase Is Better Than the Catch
Straight-up cover.  Quite faithful to the original but the singer has much cleaner vox than Lemmy's, giving it a bit of a different feel.

9. Tyrant - Killed By Death
I had totally forgotten the California Tyrant did a bunch of Dwell tribute covers until I saw the Mays listed while I was looking at the liner notes!  Vocals are surprisingly rough and not up to usual Tyrant standards, even compared to King of Kings (to say nothing of the band's '80s LPs).  Aside from the vox, good cover.

10. Noctuary - Iron Fist
Not the best BM vocals I've heard, but energetic cover, way better than expected.

11. Engrave - (We Are) the Road Crew
Mixed bag.  There's a weird dual vocal style here, with gruff semi-DM main vocals and higher backing vocals in sync.  It sounds like they were using them in tandem for a more Lemmy-like delivery, but it just seems odd to me.  I probably would have enjoyed it more with standard extreme vox.  Musically it's fine, and I thought it was fun that they speed up for the solo section.

12. Decay of Salvation - Motorhead
Kinda hard to recognize, didn't translate well as death metal.

13. Black Witchery - Overkill
Good cover, and they wisely opted for a more faithful cover that sounds nothing like their own material.  Tempo seems a bit slower than the original.  I do appreciate they're the only band that even attempted to emulate Lemmy's vocals.