The Scrounger's Report

May 19, 2000

Checkbook in traction...

Just got home. Oy, vatta day. Long day. Productive day.
Expensive day.

The vast majority of what I picked up was metal, but
there's a bit of stuff for everyone...

First, fresh from the mails:

Silent Lucidity - Positive as Sound. 1996. WMMS Records (Germany).
   Billed as a Queensryche clone; I'm not convinced. Then
   again  I've only listened to a few tracks.

Aces High - Ten 'n Out. 1994. MegaRock Records (Sweden).
   Silly question: The booklet says "Ten 'n Out", the spine
   just says "Aces High". Is there also a S/T disc by this
   band, or are people assuming this disc is S/T. I just
   arranged a trade for a S/T, and I'm wondering if I'm
   now going to have 2 copies of the same darned disc.

Tristania - Beyond the Veil. 1999. Napalm Records.
   Excellent gothic doom! This replaces a CDR I had.

Amaze Me - Dream On. 1997. Now & Then Records (U.K.)
   Quite good AOR, again replacing a CDR (gotta flush those
   out of the collection). I'm still not sure whether
   I like this one or the S/T the best of the 3 albums.

Next, I received a care package from my East European
supplier. :) [sounds like I'm dealing in narcotics, not CDs].
Almost all gambles; I basically told him "surprise me"
and he came up with some goodies.

A few I decided not to keep, and am returning:

Demon - Taking the World By Storm.
   Very disappointing. I was expecting something considerably
   more melodic. Something about the vocals I do NOT like.

Mindstorm - III.
   Visually this guy looks a lot like Robby Valentine.
   Musically, this is just annoying.

The keepers:

Mystery - Mystery. 1991. ARS Records. (CDR).
   Pomp AOR. Not bad.

Vice - Made For Pleasure. 1988. BMG Ariola (CDR).
   Excellent! Much better than Second Excess. If anyone
   has an original of this for trade, I'm interested!

Blind Guardian - Forgotten Tales. 1996. Virgin (Germany)
   Some wonderful covers, as well as acoustic and orchestral
   versions of BG songs. A must-have!

Doctor Butcher - S/T 1994. Gun Records (Germany).
   Jon Oliva and Chris Caffery from Savatage. Considerably
   heavier and rawer than 'tage.

Gypsy Kyss - When Passion Murdered Innocence. 1990. Rising Sun.
Gypsy Kyss - Songs From a Swirling Ocean. 1991. Rising Sun.
   Weird stuff. Kinda proggy with some AOR elements; 
   vocals are a bit thin at times. VERY tough to find.

Trouble Tribe - S/T. 1990. Chrysalis.
   Not bad! Not bad at all. Hard rock.

Stargazer - S/T. No date given. Long Island Records (Germany).
   Part of the "Rock Classics" series. Anyone know when 
   this was recorded? Good melodic German hard rock,
   although a couple of the tracks are pure filler.

Boysvoice - Dirty Talks. 1993. Explorer Records (Germany).
   Quite good. Melodic German hard rock.

Ok, now on to today's purchases. Due to the fact that no
local store has CRAP for new metal releases, I spent the
afternoon at the Casa de Inbred in Decatur, and ended up
fracturing my checkbook in the process. A few used discs,
but the majority of these were new (Ka-Ching!).

First, a few discs for trade/Ebay:

Pantera - Power Metal/Villain - S/T.
   Pre-cowboys stuff. Good metal, but MUCH lighter than
   what they are doing now. The Villain (pre-Vicious Rumors)
   is pretty cool as well. This brings a good penny on Ebay.

Mammoth - S/T. 1989. Jive Records.
   I had somebody ask me to keep an eye out for this whilst
   on my monthly rounds. "Your wish is my command!" :)
   This is one underrated disc! A bunch of fat guys (hence
   the group name) doing phenomenal Journeyesque AOR.
   
And some discs for me:

Blood Storm - The Atlantean Wardragon. 1997. Cacophonous (U.K.)
   Well, I was hoping for power metal, or at least
   symphonic death, at least the artwork and the song
   titles had me hopeful. Not. Black metal, and not very
   well done.

Celtic Frost - To Mega Therion. 1986. Noise.
   Classic stuff!

Yes - Big Generator. 1987. Atlantic Records.
   This, along with 90125, are probably the most "commercially
   accessible" of Yes's work. There are some pretty good
   AORish hooks in some of these tracks!

Whitecross - By Demand. 1995. Star Song Records.
   Greatest hits compilation from these Christian hard rockers.

Budgie - Nightflight. 1993 (1981). Repertoire (Germany).
   Again, their early stuff blows, but the material at the
   end of their career (reunion stuff notwithstanding) is
   quite accessible and AORish.

Candlemass - Tales of Creation. 1990. Metal Blade Records.
   Finally! I've been looking for this forever. Quintessential
   doom metal.

Tourniquet - The Collected Works of. 1996. Intense Records.
   I didn't realize Intense was still around in 1996. This
   is a greatest hits collection from these Christian thrashers.

Uriah Heep - Different World. 2000 (1993?). Castle Records.
   I like their '90s stuff, so we'll hear how this compares.
   Includes 4 bonus tracks.

Mental Home - Upon the Shores of Inner Seas. 2000. Century Media.
   Some fairly well orchestrated stuff.

Obsession - Scarred for Life. 2000 (1986). Metal Mayhem.
   Cool stuff. Unfortunately they couldn't get in Methods
   of Madness for me.

Tristania - Angina. 1999. Napalm/SPV.
   3-track single.

Leatherwolf - Wide Open. 1999. Leatherwolf Music.
   Hey, gotta have something to take to UltraSound and
   have them sound...:)

Sinner - The End of Sanctuary. 2000. Nuclear Blast.
   Good stuff, Maynard!! I need to relisten to Judgement Day
   and Nature of Evil, but off the top of my head, I think
   this disc is quite a bit better than either of those.

Jag Panzer - Thane to the Throne. 2000. Century Media.
   Seems to be a step up in production quality from their
   last. I've only listened to half of it thus far, but
   many of the songs seem to sound the same; maybe it's
   just me...

and lastly

Kingdom Come - Live and Unplugged (2 CDs). 1996. Viceroy (Germany).
   At first I assumed this was a bootleg, as it was buried
   in a box of bootlegs, but actually this is an official
   release. Haven't listened yet.

Well, that's it for today...

-Dan