The Scrounger's Report

Apr. 10, 2000

There are bootlegs and then there are BOOTLEGS!!

Well, over the last 4-6 weeks I've come to be the
proud owner of several bootlegs masquerading as official
releases. The quality is quite iffy on some of these,
making it seem like they were just rushed through the
production process; no booklets, just front plates.
All are pressed; no CDRs.

Shortcuts notwithstanding, some of these are cool
to have available on CD. Starting at the bottom:

Xcursion - Ready to Roll. Old Metal Records.
   pre-Slaughter Mark Slaughter. Very dated sounding,
   horrendous production. No booklet. Nice for those
   Slaughter completists but that's about it.

Sorcery - 2. Old Metal Records.
   pre-Giuffria David Glenn Eisley. Again, poor
   production. 4-page 1-color booklet.

GTR - Nerotrend. Element of Crime Records.
   Demos for unreleased 2nd album. No booklet;
   just a front plate. Tape hiss throughout
   and a fairly low recording level, but the music
   is incredibly good.

Pantera - Power Metal/Villain - S/T. No label.
Pantera - I Am the Night/Projects in the Jungle. Reborn Classics.
   Decent sound quality, but no booklets (just front plates).
   Must-have's for any Pantera completist and fans of
   hard-rock-era Pantera.

Heavy Pettin' - S/T. Heatsink Records.
   Pretty good sound quality. No booklet.
   Along the lines of "Rock Ain't Dead" musically.

Now, 2 bootlegs that I received today that absolutely
blow these others away, not only from a sound quality
perspective, but the packaging is the most polished
I've ever seen for bootlegs, putting many official
releases to shame.

Waysted - Save Your Prayers. 1996. Amazing Rediscoveries (New Zealand).
   To the unsuspecting, there is no indication at all that
   this is a bootleg. 16-page color booklet, full-color
   inside and outside tray card. Excellent sound quality.

Axe - Offering. 1997. Axepertise, Inc. (New Zealand).
   ($5 says it's the same outfit as above :).
   I remember bitching up a storm about a year-and-a-half
   ago when seeing these offered at what I thought was
   a ridiculous price. While I still think that paying
   $25+ for bootlegs is inane, the quality of this series
   of bootlegs (S/T, Living on the Edge, Offering, Nemesis)
   is second to none. These albums were never officially
   released on CD. Clearly, whoever produced these had access
   to the original master tapes, as the sound quality is
   unparalleled. All four discs in this series have bonus
   tracks in abundance (live tracks from the '80s, tracks
   from Bobby Barth's solo album).

Someone put considerable time, effort, and money into
releasing these last 2.

So, not all boots are lousy, but it's definitely a crapshoot.

Now if only I can track down the other 3 Axe discs... :)

-Dan