Was hoping for prog. metal but got hard rock, though I probably would have bought it anyway just as a tradable. They generally nail the late '80s/early '90s sound, complete with sappy ballads and some sleazier material. Nothing interesting for me, so to the trade pile it goes.
Until very recently, Rainbow CDs were always extremely scarce in the used bins around here. In fact, I saw this album about 20 years ago in a pawn shop (coincidentally also for $2) and it might have been my very first Rainbow CD...had the disc actually been in the case.
Only songs I was really familiar with previously were the tremendous cover of "Since You Been Gone" (which I'll always have a soft spot for) and of course "All Night Long," which isn't the worst song for this kind of upbeat stuff, but I've become rather tired of hearing it. I was quite curious about the entire album, because I'd long heard from many metal fans that everything post-Dio was Blackmore's decline into writing more radio-friendly stuff. I don't even disagree with the sentiment in general, but I wouldn't call something like "Death Alley Driver" particularly commercial, and it's one of my favorite Rainbow songs ever, so there are obvious exceptions.
Aside from "All Night Long," probably the most egregious examples of poppiness come from the choruses to "Makin' Love" and "Danger Zone," which I'm not fond of. "Eyes of the World" opens with a cool Don Airey intro that sounds a bit like the beginning of Holst's Mars, the Bringer of War. Unfortunately it doesn't segue into any "Am I Evil?" riffage, but track itself is solid (and the only song here that really sounds anything like the Dio-era stuff to any great degree). The obvious highlight here is "Lost in Hollywood," one of the best Rainbow tracks ever done.
I don't think I'll ever be a particularly huge Rainbow fan, and every album I've heard has some unevenness to it. This is no different, but I quite liked it overall. Graham Bonnet is in prime form here (even if I greatly prefer the Alcatrazz debut >:) ).
Scored this in an older haul but I put off listening to this for so long (oops!) I can't remember which one, so it gets its own post. Writing about this made me remember that I found the first two Fear Factory albums in a bargain bin in the mid-late '90s, and those were the only Fear Factory material I'd ever really heard previously. I remember not liking Demanufacture much, but thinking Soul of a New Machine was fine since it was mostly straightforward death metal (I can't have been THAT into it since I traded both discs off not too long afterwards).
Very cheap looking live EP--I've seen more substantial packaging on some promo singles, which is what I initially thought this was. "Slave Labor" is uninteresting groove metal. "Cyberwaste" is more groove metal but at least has a recurring fast riff at around a minute in that at least holds my attention. "Drones" actually gets more into the industrial territory I associate with Fear Factory, which isn't really for me. None of these tracks compel me to explore the band any further than I already have.
I'd been patiently stalking this one for about a year until they moved it from the regular priced used discs to the bargain bin. Sadly, it did have a small but nasty scrape mark on the bottom of the disc that I was worried would make it skip, but fortunately it doesn't seem to affect the playing.
Exmortus have never been particularly to my taste, but I can appreciate the use of neoclassical arrangments in something heavier than power metal or shred. As far as the more technical forms of metal go, the neoclassical influences seem like a more natural fit with the metal guitarwork then most of the bands that draw their technicality from prog. rock or jazz sources. They've toned down the death metal influences a lot from the first album, which probably serves the intricate guitarwork better, but they also seem very bound to it. The full-on classically influenced stuff is engaging, and there's quite a lot of it here. The more standard thrash parts are underwhelming, and some of the less inspired riffs feel like unspectacular melodeath.
Never been a fan of Exmortus' vocals, whether they're Baldan's on the debut album or Jadran's since. I obviously have no problem with extreme metal vocals, so I think a large part of this is the way a lot of the lyrics are broken down by syllable and the resulting cadence. Here, they mostly feel like black metal vocals, with the growlier parts being slightly reminiscent of a more monotonous Akhenaten of Judas Iscariot. I also get slight Jeff Walker vibes a few times (but nowhere as good).
Also cool to see that Exmortus has had the honor of getting 3 of the best newer Phil Lawvere covers (Probably my favorite album cover artist ever. The Hirax cover art he did is also great, but seems like a poor fit with the band--wish it had gone to someone else. The Minotaur EP cover is dorky, and the Nocturnal album is basically a mild tribute to Endless Pain with two Kreator demo guys stuck in the back).
Pretty decent stuff, and I appreciate that they're trying to inject the neoclassical elements into the music with a purpose rather than just making kitchen sink metal to be quirky.
This is one of those discs that's relatively good as a bargain bin find, but outside of that context really isn't that memorable. The band mixes thrash, death, and unfortunately some more modern influences from groove metal and -core. The death metal influences really help beef this up and make it more enjoyable overall, but again, this exists in such an overcrowded metal scene that it's not very hard to find something better without the modern influences. They're also guilty of cutting very decent fast and thrashy parts short with groovy breakdowns or generic stompy mosh riffs--this is almost always the case with the bands that have thrash mixed in as a component with more modern styles, and it's always a shame to hear. Ugh. Vocals aren't super aggro, but they're gruff and feel a bit on the forced side, lending more HC-comparisons (speaking of vocals, just as an aside, I was surprised to learn that the vocalist/bassist was in the mid-'90s DM band Umbilical Strangulation...While not the most original stuff out there, I still think their Wild Rags mCD was better than this Cold War Survivor album, but alas, since I paid 5 or 6 bucks for it, I can't cover it here).
Despite my criticisms, just as a cheap metal indie CD I bought blindly, it's quite ok. Worth the $2.
I had been holding out for the deluxe version of this with the bonus disc of '80s recordings, but I obviously wasn't going to leave the regular edition in the store when it was two bucks. The tracks from the band's old 7" EP are fine, but I never regarded them that highly among the NWOBHM. There's a certain weirdness and pompous theatricality to them where I can understand why they are liked, but they just never resonated with me personally the way stuff like Deep Switch did. When I saw their rather silly comeback look, quite frankly, I wasn't in any great hurry to check them out--especially with Kev Bower's dreadlocks, they reminded me of old men cosplaying as a low-budget version of Cradle of Filth. Also, for better or for worse, I noticed that most of the people heaping praise on their reunion material seemed to be fans of contemporary metal who came across the band due to their higher visibility as a Nuclear Blast signee, rather than '80s metal maniacs digging up rare gems.
It's not bad, but unfortunately, as you might expect from a Nuclear Blast release, it feels a bit too polished and overproduced for what it is. As with the original versions, while they're fine to listen to, but I don't think the band is ever destined to reach a particularly favored status in my mind. On the plus side, the vocals are a solid substitute for the deceased Dave Halliday, and I actually enjoyed the end of the album a lot more than the first few tracks. The new version of "Save Us from Those Who Would Save Us" is a highlight and probably worth the $2 by itself.
