The Scrounger's Report

Jan. 05, 2001

The mailman wants me dead.

With all the packages he's had to deliver to me in the last few
days, it's no wonder. Several of the purchases I made last month
as well as a couple of trades showed up. I am going to be buried
in listening material for the next few days...

In no particular order:

Sonus Umbra - Snapshots From Limbo. 2000. Lazarus Music.
  Features several of the members of Kurgan's Bane. Very
  melodic prog! While prog rock isn't my cup of tea, I find
  myself listening to this quite a bit. More melodic than
  I would have expected.

Bill Champlin - Burn Down the Night. ????. Turnip Music.
  As one would expect, quite westcoasty. Anyone know what
  year this came out? No year anywhere on the disc or
  artwork...

The Sign - Signs of Life. 2000. Frontiers Records.
  Spotty at times, but when it's on it's *ON*!

Mama's Boys - The Collection. 2000. Connoisseur Collections.
  A no-brainer, although while most consider their earliest
  work to be the "classic" material, I prefer the later,
  lighter, and more polished efforts...

Millenium - Hourglass. 2000. Frontiers Records.
  These guys can do no wrong. I still like the "Angel Fire"
  album better, but this is no slouch by any means.

21 Guns - Nothing's Real + 6. 2000. Z Records.
  I had the Jap release of this originally and traded it
  away. Relistening to it, it's not quite as bad as I 
  remember, but it's nowhere near the calibre of "Salute".
  The demo bonus tracks are actually quite good (in most
  cases better than the album itself).

Rap City - Do' No Vittry. 2000. L Masta P Records.
  Mah homey Fab Leon ain't gittin' down wid it no mo. He
  be soundin' WAY too white. Whut da FUQUE is up wit dem
  swords and shit? Damn.

  [This is the 2-CD boxed set version. NICE job on the
  book and packaging! If you're even remotely thinking
  of getting this album, spend the extra $10-15 for this
  ltd. edition.]

Pretty Maids - Karpe Diem. 2000. Massacre Records (Germany).
   Excellent!! Some of the tracks are their heaviest to date
   (the almost-quasi-death vox on "Until It Dies" work
   extremely well, and that track SMOKES). The lighter tracks
   work well also.

Def Leppard - Miss You In a Heartbeat. 1994. Bludgeon (Japan).
   Still sealed with OBI for six bucks...I simply had to.
   Title track (band acoustic version), Two Steps Behind (Joe's
   Demo Version), She's Too Tough (Joe's Demo version), and
   title track (acoustic, acoustic version).

Nevermore - Dead Heart in a Dead World. 2000. Century Media.
   This is the European boxed version. Comes with a sticker,
   a poster, and 4 bonus tracks (3 audio, 1 video). WELL
   worthwhile, especially considering that it's not any more
   expensive than the U.S. version (I got my boxed version
   from http://www.theendrecords.com
for $15 including shipping).


With one exception, I haven't listened to any of the following:

Storyteller - Corridor of Windows. 2000. MTM Records.

Brian McDonald - Wind It Up. 2000. MTM Records.

Bad Habit - 13 Years of Bad Habits. 2000. Virgin Records (Sweden).

Fair Warning - Live and More + 4. 2000. Frontiers.

Fair Warning - Go! + 4. 2000. Frontiers.

[I'm ecstatic that I'd never gotten around to replacing the CDRs
 I had of these 2 Fair Warning discs. I'd always meant to, but
 never got around to it... waiting pays off with bonus tracks]

Nelson - The Silence Is Broken. 1997. Stone Canyon/Perris.

Nelson - Life. 1999. Stone Canyon/Perris.

Axxis - Collection of Power. 2000. Massacre Records (Germany).

Axe - The Crown. 2000. MTM Records.

Planet P - Pink World. 1984. MCA Records.

and lastly:

Slyboyz - Good Time Music. 1994. Krystal Rose/Nordic Metal/Dream Disc.
   Whoa, EXCELLENT stuff! Nothing groundbreaking or new stylistically,
   just very well-executed AOR/hard rock. If you're looking for
   whom to compare them to, think early Firehouse blended with
   Michael Sweet's first solo album. Fun stuff!!

That's all for now,

-Dan "He who dies with the most CDs wins" Harding