Evangelist - Self Confidence! (2011)

 

Cost: $1.99

Found this brand new and still sealed a while ago, but when I looked up info about the band online, I saw their Bandcamp site mentioned it was limited to 200, which made me think it was almost certainly just a duplicated CD-R. So I set it aside for a while, unopened. The other day I finally decided to open it up, and I was very pleasantly surprised that it was a factory-pressed disc. 

I find bands like this kind of strange, because they present themselves in a very facetious manner via aesthetics and songtitles, but this is not reflected much at all in the actual music, which I found pretty meh, but more on that in a bit. It feels equal parts inside joke, corny gimmick, and complete lack of self-awareness. While I don't mind bands being overtly silly in theory, it typically doesn't work out very well.  Tracks like "Your Hands Are Very Soft" and "Fire on Blastbeat Hill" seem very lacking musically, and I'm reminded of the grindcore bands that seem to exist solely as cleverly absurd songtitle generators.

Aforementioned Bandcamp page refers to the band as "progressive metal," so between that and the songtitles, I was expecting something far more left-field. Instead, it's fairly straightforward death metal. The guitar in the first track is a little on the technical side in parts and there's some somewhat shreddy soloing, which I thought were elements that might hint at more fully technical/proggy material to come. These never manifest, although there are more spots of showy guitarwork throughout the tracks. Because of some tremolo riffs, blasting parts, and the second vocals, some sections have more of a black metal edge soundwise, although it's nowhere near enough where I'm tempted to classify the music as death/black metal or anything like that.

There's also one outlier song. The 9+ minute "Go! Go! Go!" is a lumbering doom/depressive rock piece with guest female vocals. It feels a good deal more engaging than the death metal material. I'm sure at least some of that has to do with the diversion of the drastic style change, but if they had done an entire album in this style, I think I would have marginally preferred it. 

This is competent enough for what I paid, but I don't hear anything here to justify listening to this again over numerous other death metal bands, most of which have better songwriting ability and/or more unique musical attributes (and generally way better cover art, too!).

Distrust - No Good Deed Shall Go Unpunished (2008 reissue)

 

Cost: 99¢

Of all the weird (and typically crappy) mixes of metal and hardcore put to disc that I've covered here, this is easily one of the best ones. It mixes deaththrashing guitars with hardcore groove and breakdowns, death metal influences, and some crossover parts (which are cool, but sadly underutilized compared to the HC stuff). The sole Metal-Archives review for this does a great job of breaking down the band's sound--I don't think later Deceased is a band I would have thought to bring up when describing their sound, but it's a very apt comparison for some of the leadwork.

The angry guy vocals obviously fit with the hardcore influences here, but I find them way too shouty. It's especially disappointing because at times the singer slips into a more growly style that I would have preferred as the main vox. In general, I'm not too thrilled with any of the HC influences that appear here, but the guitarist really carries this album with those leads. Not my favorite, but if metal/hardcore hyrbids have to exist, I wish more of them were in this vein. Great taste in movie samples, too.

Viking Skull - Born in Hell (2005)

 

Cost: $2.00

This album draws primarily from several '70s metal and hard rock influences. I was a little surprised at how much of a Sabbath undercurrent was in the riffage and guitar grooves, despite the music being quite upbeat and never slowing down beyond mid-paced (with one notable exception). For music so boisterous and gruff-vocalled, I would have expected the Motörhead influence to be far greater here.

The boogier tracks like "Red Hot Woman" and "Dirty Dirty Hole" display some AC/DC influences, and "Frostbite" mixes heavier guitars with a Rose Tattoo swagger. "Beer Drugs & Bitches" initially sounds more fitting of the song's title, but 3/4 of the way through, they suddenly segue into a excellent piece of gloomy Sabbath worship. 

The more intricate twin guitar parts are often reminiscent of NWOBHM, and closer "You Can't Kill Rock and Roll" is somewhat Saxonesque, at least until the more hard rock end section. It's seriously bugging me because the beginning of the track is super similar to some song (an NWOBHM tune, I think) that I can't come up with at the moment. I'll have to update the post if I ever remember.

This is fine for what it is, and if you're not gonna do classic doom, I think something like this is the next best use of Black Sabbath influence (certainly moreso than the umpteenth meh stoner metal/rock hybrid band). That said, this is an entertaining album rather than a great or special one. Decent enough find for two bucks, though.

Rude Awakening - Headbutter (1996)

 

Cost: 99¢ 

Yeah, that cover art doesn't look much like a metal album, but luckily, it intrigued me enough to open the case, and the band pic did look like a metal band. Kinda varied heavy/power metal. "Dignity" sounds like a '90s alternative rock song injected with some heavier parts, "They Had to Die" seems to have a vague '70s rock influence, "Billycakes" has more of a '80s traditional metal gallop to it than the other songs, and "Lemming Instinct" is quite a bit thrashier than the rest of the album. Also, while the singer doesn't directly sound much like him the majority of the time, there's a quality to his vocals that reminds me a lot of Jon Oliva. 

Cyst - Concussion Symphony (2002)

 

Cost: 99¢

Had seen this album hyped up a few times online over the years, so was super excited to come across it in a cheapo bin. Unfortunately the disc was way more scuffed up than I would have liked, but I can live with it for the price.

This isn't the most brutal thrash album ever, but it's still super intense, especially considering the year it was released, and that intensity helps carry the music tremendously. Musically it largely avoids any modern trends of the late '90s or '00s, but it doesn't feel consciously old-school, either. The hardest thing to accurately describe here is the significant death metal component to the music. When the band are playing fast, it generally sounds very thrashy, and the DM influence is usually negligible except for a beefiness to the guitars. But there are definitely some death metal grooves in some of the slower material, and this is only compounded by the guttural secondary vocals (some of the blastier parts also get rapid-fire grindcore vox). I'm unsure how exactly I'd label the band overall. It never quite feels like deaththrash in the old school way I'd use the term, and saying something like thrash with death influences feels kind of wonky too. The CD feels much more on the thrashy side to me overall, but just calling it plain thrash with no mention of any kind of death metal influence at all seems extremely disingenuous.

I'm not a huge fan of the vocals, which are more on the shouty side. They're serviceable, but the style edges this towards more of a modern thrash vibe that I could do without. Would have much rather had caustic Morbid Saint/Kreator-style vox. My other minor complaint is that songwriting seems kind of samey at times and a little underwhelming. Again, the speed and intensity here (the 9 tracks clock in at ~33min.) allow the band to power right through, but after the CD was over, I found that overall feeling of intensity to be way more notable than any of the individual songs or riffs...With one exception.

The final track is an unlisted cover of Slayer's "Angel of Death." Musically, it's one of the best renditions I've ever heard, and perhaps even the best of all. My only gripe is the vocals unnecessarily switch to the guttural style for the choruses. They did such a great job with it that it ends up being a double-edged sword, as it overshadows their original material to a significant extent, easily being the most memorable track.

I also noticed that the album title and some of the songtitles initially seem like they'd fit better for a groove metal or beatdown HC band. Then of course there's the band name, which seems far more appropriate for a death or grind band rather than a thrash one. Even the album cover, which I could see working for a variety of underground music styles, feels more like grind or HC art than thrash. I wonder if some of these things further contributed to the band being comparatively obscure.

Despite my minor criticisms, still a very nice find. Hopefully another copy in better condition will show up in the bargain bin!

Lizzy Borden - Master of Disguise (1989)

 

Cost: $2.00

Liked this more than I thought I would. For decades, my only exposure to this album was the video for "We Got the Power" on Metal Blade's Video Meltdown VHS, which I thought was overly commercial and corny. I remember my favorite local CD store had 2 copies of this disc in their racks for years, but between prioritizing much better stuff and being turned off by the aforementioned music video, I never bothered buying one.

Going into this with lowered expectations probably helped, as it's far more of an '80s hard rock opera than a metal album. It's not completely devoid of metal (the title track is probably the best song of the bunch), but it's nowhere near as heavy overall as any previous Lizzy Borden album. While the band's image was obviously heavily rooted in a sense of theatricality, here it extends quite a bit into music. But rather than taking on a lot of proggy tendencies, this is a deeper exploration of the commercial aspects that were already on Visual Lies in spades, with a big focus on the multi-layered vocal melodies and hooky riffs. It's not as heavy as I would have liked, but it's done pretty tastefully, and even "We Got the Power" stands out as being especially vapid compared to the other tracks. It's also the last track, making it seem like a afterthought, like a grab for a commercially viable single or something.

This is another case of an album being fine for what it is, it's just that "it" happens to be something I'm rarely inclined to want to throw on and listen to. For all its slickness and catchiness, none of these songs have the immediate appeal to me as any song from Love You to Pieces, which I consider to be one of the great USPM albums. Still, well worth 2 bucks, even if only to fill the gap in my collection.

Frozen Eternity - Forgotten Past (2006)

 

Cost: $2.99

This was a blind buy--saw the Christophe Szpajdel logo on the front, took a moment to verify the disc was in good shape, and bought it without bothering to look up the band or even scrutinize the booklet much. I would have expected black or black/death metal based on the logo, but these guys are clearly fans of the Children of Bodom debut. The power metal influence and flashiness/shreddiness of the guitars is toned down slightly, and I wouldn't argue if someone pointed out that specific parts are actually much closer to some specific melodic DM band (I do kinda hear Ensiferum in a few places), but almost everything here is at least somewhat reminiscent of Something Wild. Frozen Eternity don't go as heavy on the keyboard usage, but even then, it still reminds me of how Children of Bodom incorporate them. About the only thing that didn't remind me of CoB to some extent musically was the blasting section that opens "Wasted Life."

The drums are programmed but it's not particularly noticeable so I didn't mind them. The only musical misstep I can really point out here are the out-of-tune secondary/backing vox on the closing track "Frozen Eternity." They sound like they might have been doubled up, which makes me think they were a very clumsy attempt at choral vocals.

There's nothing particularly original here, and this obviously shares some similarities with any power metal-tinged melodeath band that uses raspier, more BM-style vocals, not just Children of Bodom. Can't say I'm all that into this style of metal, but it is energetic and proficient enough to rise above being a low quality clone. Worth what I paid, at the very least.