A Tribute to the Songs of Ozzy Osbourne & Black Sabbath (2004)

 

Cost: $1.00

A tribute CD of female artists doing acoustic covers of Sabbath and Ozzy. I've never heard of any of them before, but I saw several of them also appear on a Fleetwood Mac tribute on the same label. Oh dear. As you will note, the tracklisting skews towards very popular tracks, and there are no mellower songs like "Planet Caravan" or "Changes" that might have a decent chance of translating well. The whole concept seems extremely lame, but it can't be as bad as the Stryper tribute, right? Let's find out...

1. Linda Benskin - Hole in the Sky 

Not a big fan of this as a cover. The vocals feel weird in this context, although the arrangement is well done. I suspect this will be a recurring theme. 

 

2. Robin McDonald - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

I like the arrangement, but the vocals feel stilted and overly talk-singy at times. There's a slight reverb(?) effect on the vocals during the verses which makes them sound like an old woman.

 

3. Julie Griffin - Never Say Die

Much more soulful vocals here. Even if they come off a bit overzealous at times, at least they sound enthusiastic.

 

4. Linda Benskin - Crazy Train

Sounded promising from the opening melody but the rest of the arrangement is kind of simplified. It's the lethargic vocals that really bring this down, though.

 

5. Heather Nolan - Flying High Again

Southern lilt to the singing which gives this a bit of a country feel. Vocals are very unenthused sounding, but it's not as bad as the previous tracks.

 

6. Camille Boscardin - Iron Man

Stands out a bit from the other tracks due to the somewhat folksier arrangement and the layered vocals. Not great, though.

 

7. Aj Kusuhara - Paranoid

Not how I ever want to hear "Paranoid," but at least it's not as bad as some of the other versions.

 

8. Cindy Mendenhall - War Pigs

This song just doesn't translate to the style that they're going for well.

 

9. Jen Lettellier - Bark at the Moon

Again, weird choice to cover in this type of fashion. Vocals remind me a little of Lisa Loeb.

10. Julia Orr - Sweet Leaf

As a song this works better for this than some of the others. Vocals sound a bit like if the singer from the "Never Say Die" cover reined it in a little.

 

11. Kim Coger - N.I.B.

This was the cover I was most curious about, because I could see it working as an acoustic version, but given some of the other tracks, I was prepared for a trainwreck. This song certainly works a lot better in this style than a lot of the others. Vocals aren't the worst but not the best on this album, either.

 

12. Kymberly Evans - No More Tears

Strictly as a cover version, this is probably the best track on here. I think the original song is just okay (especially in comparison to some of the Sabbath classics on here), which says a lot about the compilation.

 

I noticed the booklet only credits the singers, and the guitar playing is of a uniform quality all across the tracks, so it's obvious the same person/team recorded all the guitarwork. Even the "better" tracks don't really justify the existence of the CD--this doesn't even have the cheesy fun factor that can come out of string tributes or even those baby song tributes. I can see a few of these covers working at a coffeehouse's open mic night or a free public park gig, but not as the basis for a compilation CD.

 

Morfin - Inoculation (2014)

 

Cost: $2.99

Was curious to hear these guys, as they spawned from that California mini-movement of bands (largely) influenced by the Floridian-sounding death metal of the late '80s. Skeletal Remains and Rude are the others that come to mind, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were a few more. I also kind of wonder if these guys picked a bad time to do music like this. The music certainly owes a lot to Death, but around this time a certain Exhumed member came out with a band doing pure Death worship at, quite frankly, a far higher level.

Also, just to be clear, while the thrashier parts here definitely evoke Leprosy, to my ears Morfin sounds more like the most Death-inspired early Morgoth stuff than Death themselves. The vocals certainly bring to mind an American-accented Marc Grewe, although it could be equally accurate to compare them to a less extreme John Tardy mixed together with Leprosy-era Chuck. Compared to Skeletal Remains, there aren't really any direct Pestilence or Massacre influences. "Lethal Progeny" has some slight Obituary-ness to it, and while I'm sure Morfin are fans, they generally stay away from doomier or Frostier sounds. There are also some scattered not-sure-if-they're-paying-homage-to-Autopsy-or-Gorguts-debut-or-maybe-both moments.

This is pretty cool (despite my personal preference for more Rick Rozz divebombs), and the "Leprosy" cover is very well done. But in all honesty, early Skeletal Remains and early Gruesome were both much better at songwriting and riffcraft.

 

Beastmaker - Eye of the Storm (2019)

 

Cost: $2.00

When I found this, the band name was vaguely familiar to me, but I had never actually heard them, and certainly had no idea about the direct Haunt connection. The general aesthetic made me think it was going to be some kind of traditional metal. When I briefly looked them up pre-listen, I was rather surprised to see they were a doom band. I then learned after more research post-listen that they shed some of the fuzzier doom elements and incorporated more heavy metal on this particular release. My keen metal intuition strikes again.

While it's easy to identify doomy riffs and passages when listening, this ultimately doesn't feel much like doom metal overall. Typically when doom and traditional metal are mixed, I think of more epic metal sounding bands like Doomsword, Coven (13), Solstice, or even various Cirith Ungol-inspired stuff. This doesn't really have that kind of vibe. The harmonized guitarwork is very NWOBHM-ish, and the vocals have a very "British" feel as well. They're generally reminiscent of Kevin Heybourne, especially on "My Only Wish," but I can hear bits of Sean Harris in them as well. Ironically, some of the vocal layering on "Shadows" brought to mind the singing on the first White Wizzard EP.

 A solid EP with excellent guitarwork, well worth the 2 bucks. Releases like this remind me of the nearly incomprehensible amount of recorded heavy metal out there--while I fully recognize this is very good material in a modern context, it hardly leaves an impression compared to bands I consider excellent.

Garudas Mission - Omen in Onyx (2004)

 

Cost: $2.00

Progressive metal, with the heavier tracks showing off more power metal influences. Metal Archives specifically mentions them as having "dark ambient influences"--while I can see where this comes from, I think emphasizing it in their genre category is a bit misleading. The atmospheric keyboard work in the background is certainly more reminiscent of ambient music than in other prog. metal bands, although had I never seen dark ambient mentioned, I would likely have just described them as having slight tinges of gothic metal in their atmosphere.

Not my favorite kind of thing, but generally solid stuff, with two minor exceptions. The (thankfully) seldom-used extreme vocals (in "Solitude" and "Machine," specifically) are overly forced and screamy, sounding like they should be in a -core band. There are also a few places with more modern, chuggier/groovier riffs ("Spellbound" and "Poisons"), although again, they're used so sparingly, it's more surprising when they show up than actually annoying.

Speaking of surprising, the final track starts out very mellow, but then halfway through, some playful, retro-futuristic keyboards and chimes suddenly come in. It immediately brought to mind the music from some of those old '80s and '90s VHS tapes showcasing computer animation. Not really my thing either, but it made the track very unique.

Darkcell - Nightmare Document Part 2 (2013)

 

Cost: $1.00

This combines black metal and ambient, so obviously, several tracks are similar to what I would stereotypically think of as ambient black metal and are rather discordant. The purer dark ambient sections are decent, though they tend towards dreamier rather than sinister. Other times the ambient sounds seem to be mild attempts to make the music weirder or vaguely psychedelic. Personally I think it would have been interesting if some of these elements were taken to further extremes, even at the risk of going overboard. Still, the riff in "Mantis and Ants" is a lot catchier than other bands in the same vein, so it's not that bad of a find for a buck.

Sabbra Cadabra - Live

 

Cost: $1.00

This was a super interesting find, as practically no metal tribute acts make it even close to a point where releasing a factory-pressed CD would be feasible. The only other example I can even think of is the Iron Maidens.

Didn't realize it when picking this up, but the singer is Joe Donnelly, who was later the vocalist of Iron Man around the time period of the I Have Returned album. 

Recording is excellent for a self-financed live CD, the band is tight, guitar tone is great, and the Ozzy emulation is pretty decent. I was a little surprised at the setlist, since there are two Technical Ecstasy songs and the last track is "Selling My Soul," one of the then-brand new studio tracks from the Reunion live album. "Dirty Women" is kinda cool to hear but as for the others, I would personally rather heard "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath," "Symptom of the Universe," or even "Sweet Leaf." I do appreciate that they're trying to incorporate some less known stuff in the set, but also a bit saddened that there's nothing from Sabotage on here, making it the only Ozzy album at the time of this recording (1998) that they didn't play anything from.

Minor Utopia - Withering in the Concrete (2012)

 

Cost: $2.00

At first I was curious what this would be like, but my expectations hit rock bottom when I saw the singer/guitarist. I don't know if his name indicates trans stuff or not, but he has a rather unfortunate Hot Topic goth appearance (for any German readers, he would look more at home in the pages of Zillo than in a good metal band).

Surprisingly, the music is not as bad as I feared, although it's not super interesting either. It's a sort of somewhat thrashy, upbeast modern metal, with occasional power metal influences in some of the galloping melodies, as well as some progressive metal touches. "Pneuma," the best song, is a decent thrasher, but unfortunately it's the only time they fully commit to thrash. There are also a couple of flirtations with more extreme metal, like on "Ethical Knockout" and "Hole in the Sky." The vocals aren't the worst I've ever heard, but they're inconsistent and often come off as whiny and amateurish. 

In a way this exceeded my expectations, since they don't deviate from metal or incorporate any outside influences. But there's nothing interesting or showing potential here to me either, so I'm unlikely to revisit it.