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The Scrounger's Report
Jul. 20, 2001
The Lazy-Ass-Wait-for-CDs Scrounger's Report
Hmm... enough discs coming in the mail from trades, Ebay, and
online stores, that I can do a Scrounger's Report without having
gone anywhere to scrounge (takes some of the fun out of it tho).
A few I haven't listened to yet:
Santers - Top Secrecy. 1999. AOR Heaven (Germany).
Heartland - Miracles By Design. 1998. Escape (U.K.).
Treat - The Pleasure Principle + 1. 2001 (1986). Universal (Sweden).
Dreamhunter - Kingdom Come. 2000. Z Records (U.K.)
Now the ones I *have* listened to:
Roudness - Dlagon/Ghetto Machine (2 CDs). 1999 Dream Catcher (U.K.)
My how the mighty hath fallen. :( These 2 albums are from 1997
and 1998, and don't even begin to compare to their material
from the mid-late 1980s, when they were at their peak. Modern
sounding, nothing to really hold your attention.
Anvil - Molten Masterpieces. 1989. Attic Records (Canada).
This "compilation" is basically a 2-on-1 of Anvil's 1981 and
1982 albums "Hard 'n Heavy" and "Metal on Metal". In many
places more hard rock than metal by today's standards (then
again we don't need to rehash that age-old discussion of
what was considered "metal" in the early '80s is now considered
"hard rock" at the heaviest).
Rough Silk - Beyond the Sundown. 1998. Massacre Records (Germany).
Rough Silk - Mephisto. 1997. Massacre Records (Germany).
*sigh* Disappointing. Gone are the heavy yet harmonic melodies
that I found so appealing on "Roots of Hate" and "Walls of Never".
It's as if those albums never existed.
Edde Maxx - Land of the Red Sun. 199?. Magada Intl. (Canada).
AOR. Fairly melodic, but nothing really grabbed me on this one.
One of those "one-man band" type of projects...
Macalpine-Aldridge-Rock-Sarzo - Project Driver. 1986. Shrapnel.
Oy vey. Boy does this sound primitive by today's standards.
Good to have for completist purposes though. Rob Rock: Big
Hair! BIIIIIIIIIG HAIR! Ye Gods!
Heartland - III. 1995. Escape (United Kingdom).
Solid effort; nothing earth shattering. I still like the
S/T the best thus far. Good melodic AOR.
Thor - Only the Strong + 2. 1985.
Thor - Thunderstruck-Tales From the Equinox. 1998. Star USA.
Jon Thor - Dogz II. 2001. Igroove (Canada).
He. Hehe. Hehehehe. HAHA. HAHAHAHA! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
*falls down laughing uncontrollably*
*gasp* *gasp*
"Oh Gawd that hurts... hehehe... HAHAHHAHAHAHHA!!!!!"
*laughing fit resumes*
10 minutes pass...
"heehee.. heehee"
Every self-respecting metalhead should have this stuff for the
humor value alone. Talk about bad. Trite, cheesy, over-cliched,
etc., etc., etc. Big blonde Conan wannabe strutting around on
stage belting out bad '80s metal. Don't believe me?
http://www.thorkorr.com
Pete Sandberg - Back in Business. 1998. BlueStone/SPV (Germany).
Solid comeback for former Alien frontman. Quite melodic
AOR.
Midpoint - S/T. 1995. Magada Int'l (Canada).
This one was a surprise. First glance at the band pic on the
back yielded an "Uh oh." Very modern appearance (too many
goatees). However, this is *extremely* solid hard rock!
This is a 6-track EP engineered by Harold Hess (yes, *that*
Harold Hess). AOR Heaven has this bargain-priced at US$6,
get it while you can.
24K - Pure. 2000. Z Records (U.K.)
Somewhat spotty, but when it shines, it SHINES! Some kick-
ass AOR stuff on here.
Newman - S/T. 1996. Point Music/AOR Heaven.
Excellent! Very melodic stuff. I liked Dancing in the Fire,
but I think this is better...
Lance - While the Giant Sleeps. 1996. Empire Records (Sweden).
Quite melodic AOR. Lead vocals at times have a slightly
gruffer edge to them, but not enough to turn me off...
Baltimoore - There's No Danger on the Roof. 1988. Bozz (Sweden).
At times poppy, at tother times extremely melodic AOR.
A couple of real gems sprinkled throughout...
Allied Forces - R.U. Wilde. 1999. Escape (U.K.)
Would it surprise anyone if I said that my favorite tracks
on this *aren't* the ones with Danny Vaughn on lead vox?
[not to imply that his tracks are bad, just that some of
the others are better.] The lead track especially kicks ass.
Grand Prix - Samurai. 2000 (1981?). Zoom Club Records.
Excellent melodic stuff in a dated way; some might say
"Classic!". I think I prefer the S/T with Bernie Shaw
though. This one would rank in the mid-80s/100 whereas
the S/T hits the 90s IMHO. How does "There For None to
See" compare?
Zeno - S/T. 1986. EMI (Japan).
Yowza! I kinda glossed over this when I originally got
a CDR of the album, but this thing is extremely solid
AOR/hard rock; considerably better than the other Zeno
effort. Unusual for a Japanese release, there's no
lineup listed. Is that Tommy Heart (Fair Warning) on
lead vox?
Paul Shortino - Back on Track. 1993. Alfa Brunette (Japan).
Very solid hard rock from former Rough Cutt frontman.
A pretty star-studded effort: Jeff Northrup: all guitars,
Bobby Kimball: guest vox on 1 track, Carmine Appice:
drums on 2 tracks, James Kottak: drums on 4 tracks,
Matt Bissenette: bass on 1 track, Jeff Pilson: bass on
2 tracks, Sean McNabb: backing vocals, bass on 2 tracks.
House of Shakira - On the Verge. 1998. BlueStone/SPV (Germany).
Are these guys capable of putting out a bad effort?
I don't think so. Top-notch melodic hard rock here.
I think I still prefer "Lint", but I'll have to give
both a few more listens to be sure...
Avantasia - The Metal Opera. 2001. Century Media.
Finding this locally was a surprise. A star-studded
power metal affair. Epic themes predominate. If you
like your metal happy, heavy, and harmonic, you'll
love this one.
Annihilator - In Command (Live 1989-1990). 1996. Roadrunner.
Excellent!! I've always been a big Annihilator fan; Alice
in Hell is a quintessential '80s metal album. The sound
quality on this live album is quite excellent. It takes
2 performances, each with different lead vocalists and
since some of the tracks in each set duplicate, it's
neat to compare vocalists. Tracks 1-5 (Randy Rampage
on lead vox) were recorded Nov. 11, 1989 at The Ritz in
NYC, tracks 6-14 (Coburn Pharr on lead vox) were recorded
Nov. 2, 1990 at The Showroom, San Antonio. The 2 tracks
duplicated by each set are 2 of their best: "Welcome
to Your Death" and "Alison Hell". A must-have!!!
Siam - The Language of Menace. 1994. Now and Then Records.
I knew that Tony Mills did the lead vocals but I'd never
put it high up on my "to get" list, since I'd most often
seen it described as "like Queensryche" and I wasn't
sure how well Tony Mills would do Geoff Tate.
Answer: quite well. Not only that, only a few tracks are
what you would call "heavy". The remainder lean towards
the material he did with Shy, just remove the keyboards.
If you liked his vocals on "Brave the Storm" or "Excess
All Areas" (the quintessential Shy albums), you'll dig
this. Bigtime.
and lastly, an Ebay purchase. I'd been looking for this
darned thing on CD for a couple of years, and had only
ever seen it on cassette. It seemed only appropriate that
since I own HeavensMetal.Com that I track down this boxed
set:
Various Artists - The Heaven's Metal Collection.
1992. Pure Metal Records.
A veritable "Who's Who" of the CCM hard rock and metal
scene in the 1980s and early 1990s. The book is quite
informative, and the band photographs are something
else by today's standards :).
It's a 2-CD boxed set. The track listing is as follows:
Disc 1
1. Resurrection Band - Waves
2. The Daniel Band - You're All I Need
3. Jerusalem - Sodom
4. Stryper - From Wrong to Right
5. First Strike - Loneliness Kills
6. Barren Cross - It's All Come True
7. Barnabas - Breathless Wonderment
8. Darrell Mansfield Band - Jesus Will Reign
9. Saint - Primed and Ready
10. Messiah Prophet - Heavy Metal Thunder
11. Bloodgood - Self-Destruction
12. Whitecross - No Way I'm Goin' Down
13. Neon Cross - Son of God
14. Shout - Shout
Disc 2
1. Trytan - Genesis
2. Rage of Angels - Are You Ready for Thunder
3. Leviticus - The Suffering Servant
4. Sacred Warrior - Children of the Light
5. Vengeance Rising - White Throne
6. Deliverance - The Call
7. X-Sinner - Lift Him Up
8. Holy Soldier - Love Me
9. Tourniquet - You Get What You Pray For
10. Jet Circus - Step On It
11. Guardian - Time and Time Again
12. Believer - Stop the Madness
13. Novella - Give Me Love
14. Bride - Troubled Times
15. The Crucified - Mindbender
16. Ransom - Lasting Love
17. Mortification - The Destroyer Beholds
With shipping, I shelled out $27.00 for it, which might
be a bit by some people's standards, but I'm surprised
it didn't go higher. I'd set my max bid at $60.00, so
frankly I consider this one a bargain; I do a *lot* of
CD hunting and buying, and lemme tell you, at least here
in the midwest this set just doesn't exist...
As an FYI, AOR Heaven has added a bunch of new stuff to
their "bargain bin" again. I just made another order to
fill yet more holes in my collection:
Departure - S/T $ 6.00
Eric Martin - Soul Sessions (Jap) 7.00
Shyboy - S/T 5.00
Silent Witness - Thrills 5.00
Stranded - Long Way to Heaven 6.00
Street Talk - Collaboration 5.00
Hard Rain - When the Good Times Come 5.00
Michael Morales - That's The Way 6.00
Tower City - All or Nothing 6.00
Under Fire - S/T 5.00
Even if some of them suck, it's hard to go wrong at those
prices...
Til next time,
-Dan
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