The Scrounger's Report

Dec. 28, 1999

Self-flagellation ain't my thang, so.... (LONG)

I realize I've been exceedingly lax in reporting my latest acquisitions.
I'm here to atone for my misdeeds. All of these are originals.
All sorts of genres represented here. Let's see, where to begin...

Saviour Machine - II. 1994 - Intense Records.
   This was a disappointment. I was somewhat enamored by the debut,
   but listening to this has me wondering why. Goth? yes. Balls? no.

Bitch - A Rose by Any Other Name. 1989. Metal Blade Records.
   Oh. Goody. An EP of Bitch remixes. Whodafocque thought
   *this* was a good idea?

Resolution - Bulletproof. 1992 BMG Ariola (Germany).
   Unfortunately quite forgettable. It's AOR-ish, but absolutely
   nothing jumps out and grabs you.

Up All Night - S/T. 1991. Long Island (Germany).
   Zzzzzzzz... *snork* Huh? What? *YAWN* Sorry....

PFR - Goldie's Last Day. 1993. Vireo Records.
   Lite CCM AOR. At times a little too Beatles-esque for my tastes,
   but a decent effort nonetheless.

Stranger - Stranger. 1992 (1982). Sony Music.
   Quite dated by today standards, and the mix needs help, but the
   completist demands acquisition.

Haywire - Get Off. 1992. Attic Records.
   Considerably heavier than "Don't Just Stand There", and
   unfortunately not as good. Fairly nondescript hard rock.

Touch - S/T. 1980. Music For Nations (United Kingdom).
   Extremely dated Mark Mangold AOR project. Good historical reference
   piece though.

Magdalen - The Dirt (EP). 1994. Intense Records.
   An interesting CCM disc. Lanny Cordola and Chuck Wright (Shout)
   front this project. I think its place in history will be
   secured by its opening track, quite possibly the WORST cover
   in the history of mankind: Black Sabbath's "War Pigs". BLEAGH!

The Poorboys - Pardon Me. 1992. Hollywood Records.
   A little sleaze/hard rock for what ails you. Not bad.

Bad Boy - Best of Bad Boy. 1998. Surgeland Records.
   Fairly spotty, but there are a few really good tracks on
   this compilation.

Ten - The Robe + Bonus Collection. 1999. Frontiers Records.
Ten - Ten + The Name of the Rose. 1999. Frontiers Records.
   Good stuff! I can now toss the CDRs I had onto the trade pile.
   The packaging is quite thorough, and these represent quite
   a good value EVEN THOUGH THEY'RE NOT AT THE SINGLE-DISC PRICE
   AS PROMISED! *ahem* Sorry....:)

Angry - Blood From Stone. 1990. Mushroom Records (Australia).
   A nice little Mike Slamer project here. Pretty decent hard rock
   (although I much prefer Wall of Silence).

St. Clair - S/T. 1997. MTM Records (Germany).
   Fairly nondescript, but the cover of Pat Benatar's "Fire and Ice"
   makes it worthwhile.

Westworld - S/T. 1999. Spitfire Records.
   I still haven't heard Transistor yet, but from all indications I've
   read, *this* is what should have been released as the newest TNT
disc.
   Quite good!

Parish - Envision. 1995. Long Island Records.
   This is just a little out-of-the-norm for Long Island Records, which
   I've always associated with AOR. It's a heavy metal album. Moreover,
   it's mid-80s heavy metal released a decade late. Not bad...

Alphaville - The Breathtaking Blue. 1989. Warner Brothers.
   I've always liked Europop, and these guys are no exception.
   Not quite as good as some of their other offerings, however.

Helloween - Metal Jukebox. 1999. Sanctuary Records.
   Some fun stuff here! All covers, and some quite memorable (I love
   the ABBA cover!).

Amorphis - The Karelian Isthmus. 1992. Relapse Records.
   Hanson does black metal... well at least that's what the photos
   would lead you to believe. Symphonic black metal (if there is
   such a thing). I still prefer the more melodic "Elegy".

Amorphis - Privilege of Evil. 1993. Relapse Records.
   Even though it was released after the above, in actuality it
   predates The Karelian Isthmus. 4 of the 6 tracks are on both
   releases, with the versions on this release being much more 
   primitive. The versions on this release were mixed and engineered
   by Timo Tolkki of Stratovarius fame.

Toto - Mindfields. 1999. Columbia Records.
   I don't know what all the whining was about when this came out...
   This is a darned good album. If you liked Tambu, you'll like
   this one.

Champlin, Bill - Through It All. 1995. Turnip Records.
   Now this was a surprise. I actually wasn't anticipating anything
   memorable with this one. It's quite good WestCoast AOR (although
   less "WestCoast" than I would have thought, and the production is
   top-notch.

Steve Stone - Dreams Die Hard. 1990. CBS Records.
   Some pretty good hard rock here, although the front cover screams
   "POSEUR!"

Martin, Jimmy - Kids of the Rockin' Nation. Year??? Long Island
(Germany).
   I really like this one! He's got a very "John Denver"-ish quality
   to his voice (I'm sure he would be unflattered by the comparison),
   but it works... quite well. Paint-by-numbers light AOR, but worth
   listening to.

The Brave - Trust. 1994. Pakaderm Records.
   *Finally*. I've been looking for this for quite a while (I'm a
   Pakaderm completist :). Even though James Salters is not the
   vocalist, it has the trademark "Elefante Sound." Don't be scared
   away from this. It's good.

Various Artists - Heavenly Metal Ballads. 1993. Pila Records (Germany).
   A German compilation of U.S. CCM metal ballads...does it get any
   more obscure? :) An excellent representation of the CCM hard rock
   scene! 16 tracks from: Whitecross, Idle Cure, Bride, Magdallan,
   Holy Soldier, Age of Faith, Chryztyne, Rachel-Rachel, Legend,
   Bloodgood, The Brave, Halo, Creed, Angelica, Liaison, and Guardian.

James Byrd's Atlantis Rising - S/T. 1991. Roadrunner (Germany).
   Good solid melodic heavy metal here. It's a guitarist's project,
   but luckily we don't get drawn into the self-absorbed musical
   masturbation so common to these types of things (Hi Yngwie!).
   The lead vocalist reminds me a LOT of Don Dokken at times, and
   overall this has a very mid-80s feel.

Dakota - Mr. Lucky. 1996 (198?). Escape (United Kingdom).
   What year was this originally done? There's no reference to the
   original recording date anywhere (which occurs with EXTREMELY
   annoying frequency on Escape releases). Excellent WestCoast AOR!
   Very much recommended!

1st Avenue - Tears and Triumph. 1992. Indisc Records (Holland).
   Quite good keyboard-driven AOR. I don't recognize any of the names
   asociated with this project (why did I want this, Ed?), but I'm
   quite glad I have it! :) Very melodic stuff!

Messiah Prophet - Master of the Metal. 1986. Pure Metal Records.
   I had an old scratched-up copy of this that I sold about 2 years
   ago when someone made me an offer I couldn't refuse :), and have
   been looking to replace it ever since. Productionwise it is
   *extremely* primitive by today's standards (representative of
   the Pure Metal releases of that period), but historically an
   important release of the CCM heavy metal genre. It's a fun listen.

Dokken - Back in the Streets. 1989 (1979). Repertoire Records (Germany).
   Holy underproduction, batman! I guess you could rename this
   "The Breaking the Chains Demos". It's not bad, but it is definitely
   a reminder of how poor production was in the metal daze of the 
   late 1970s and early 1980s. A nice acquisition though...

That's all for now. I'm expecting one more disc in this week that
hopefully will make it in before Y2K. It's a gem that falls under
the "too good to be true" category, so we'll see if the disc actually
shows up, or if the guy was scamming me. If it actually shows, I'll
either be gloating horrendously or be wondering what all the fuss
was about...:)

Till then,

-Dan