The Scrounger's Report

Oct. 31, 2001

An Amazingly Obscure Scrounger's Report

Got 2 shipments in last week, one a trade from overseas, and one
a return order from Sentinel Steel. As with most of my acquisitions
as of late, the vast majority are metal, as opposed to AOR.

Most of it is fairly obscure stuff (or somewhat tough to find at
least)...

Various Artists - The Best of Metal Massacre. 1989. Metal Blade.
   Ok, so this one isn't obscure or tough. Freebie from Sentinel
   Steel. A representative sampling of cuts from all the Metal
   Massacre albums.

Whitesnake - Starkers in Tokyo. 1997. EMI (UK).
   About as unplugged as unplugged can get... one voice, one
   guitar.

Hard Rain - S/T. 1997. Semaphore (Germany).
   Hey look... it's Magnum! Well, sort of. Decent stuff.

House of Shakira - III. 2000. MTM (Germany).
   YUM!!! Excellent AOR!! I love all of their efforts. Is it just
   me, or does this have a more Survivoresque sound than the
   first two?

Warhead - S/T. 1995. Communique Records (UK).
   Rather nondescript thrash. Nothing special.

Virus - Lunacy. 1989. AVM/Metalworks (Switzerland).
   More thrash. Fairly primitive, gotta love those lengthy
   (35 minutes) albums of the '80s...

Grave Digger - Heart of Darkness. 1995. Gun Records.
Grave Digger - Symphony of Death. 1994. Gun Records.
Grave Digger - War Games. 1985. Noise Records.
   Coming ever closer to completing my discography of
   these German metallers.

Virgin Steele - Magick Fire Musik. 2000. Noise/TT Records.
   I don't care what anyone says, David DeFeis and Eric
   Adams (Manowar) were separated at birth... but
   Virgin Steele is better. :) Decent EP of schtuff.


The next 6 discs were heaven-sent as far as I'm concerned.
There are a couple of labels that I want to eventually own
every release on "just cuz". One is Grand Slamm, one is
FM Revolver (yeah, good LUCK), and one is the metal division
of LaserLight Records (Germany). Yeah, the same label that
put out all the classical discs; they had a "MetalMania"
series in the late '80s to early '90s. Almost entirely
German bands, the discs pop up on Ebay, but tend to go for
relatively big bux. Sentinel Steel somehow had a bunch for
reasonably decent money ($14 per). Most of these bands and
compilations are what you'd consider "second rate" or "mid
tier" metal bands. Many are closer to hard rock than metal,
even though the artwork indicates otherwise. Some interesting
unknowns in the group though:

Tox - Prince of Darkness. 1991.
   For some reason it reminds me a lot of mid-80s Gary Moore.

Veto - Carthago. 1990.
   Iron Maiden with early Biff Byford at the helm?

High Tension - S/T. 1993 (1987).
   Motley Crue does light power metal.

V/A - Killer. 1990.
   1. Crystal Pride - Rock 'n Roll Gun
   2. Crystal Pride - Let You Go
   3. Crystal Pride - Evil Force
   4. Lazy - Chewing Gum
   5. Lazy - Mother Time
   6. Lazy - You Got the Power
   7. Shere Khan - Point of a Needle
   8. Shere Khan - Rockin' You, Rockin' Me
   9. Shere Khan - Turn the Table
  10. Lynx - Final Race
  11. Lynx - Nothing in Return
  12. Stranger - She Was
  13. Stranger - Wet Dream
  14. Kat - Metal and Hell
  15. Kat - Killer
  16. Elise - Seven Witches

V/A - On the Edge of Death. 1990.
   1. Crosshead - Danger
   2. Death Squad - F... Like and Animal
   3. Killer - Shockwaves-Scarecrow
   4. Killer - In the Name of the Law
   5. Crystal Pride - Thousand Nights
   6. Crystal Pride - Flight of Heart
   7. Lazy - Out of Sight
   8. Lazy - Rock On
   9. Lazy - Strange Woman
  10. Shere Khan - Stroke of Love
  11. Shere Khan - Quite Enough for Love
  12. Shere Khan - The Crowd Is Getting Hungry
  13. Lynx - Nightwalker
  14. Lynx - Don't Fool Me
  15. Torrent - Lost in the Army

V/A - Metal Battle. 1991.
   1. Tyrant - Wanna Make Love
   2. Gravestone - Dirty Tales
   3. Veto - Ultimatum
   4. High Tension - Lady
   5. Tokyo Blade - Watch Your Step
   6. Stormwitch - Russians on Fire
   7. Tox - Leisure Time
   8. Tyrant - Killing the Peace We Fall
   9. Veto - Desert Kings
  10. High Tension - Stay the Night
  11. Veto - Riders on the Loose
  12. Stranger - The Bell
  13. Tyrant - Free for All


Now we move to a pair of oldies on the Roadracer
"Price Killers" series from the late '80s:

Paradox - Product of Imagination. 1987. Roadracer (Germany).
   Decent thrash, but not mind-blowing; I've only given
   it a partial listen though.

Hallow's Eve - Tales of Terror. 1985. Roadracer (Germany).
   Disappointing. Boring speed metal.


Royal Hunt - Far Away (EP). 1995. Rondel (Japan).
   I ultimately want to have originals of all the Royal
   Hunt discs, EPs and singles included, but finding
   some of the Japanese stuff is tough. D.C. Cooper era
   Royal Hunt (still my favorite era).

Graaf - Different World. 1997. Self-released.
   Kinda like a poor man's version of Metallica.
   Passable, but nothing stellar.


And the last 2 discs are quite cool:

V/A - Made In Tribute. Toy's Factory (Japan).
   One of the members of our local metal listening
   group had brought this a while back, and while
   I wanted to pick this up, I'd never found it at
   a decent price (that I recall at any rate).
   New, with OBI, for $14 from Sentinel Steel.
    1. Arch Enemy - Aces High
    2. Decameron - 2 Minutes to Midnight
    3. Therion - Children of the Damned
    4. Armageddon - Die With Your Boots On
    5. Nocturnal Rites - Wasted Years
    6. Sadist - Wrathchild
    7. Lord Belial - The Trooper
    8. Naglfer [sic] - The Evil that Men Do
    9. Dark Tranquillity - 22, Acacia Avenue
   10. In Flames - Murders in the Rue Morgue

Sahara - Going Crazy. 1992. Dream Circle Records (Germany).
   Excellent! Some of the best female-fronted hard rock
   I've heard in quite a while. Think Pat Benatar meets
   Lita Ford. Discography?

That's all for now...

-Dan