The Scrounger's Report

Sep. 09, 2000

Cousin Toothy Headbangs... 37 bystanders injured... lawsuits pending.

I dropped by the local mom and pop indy shoppe last night to get
a metal fix, but they were less than useless. :( I didn't find
a darned thing useful. I especially wanted the new Nocturnal Rites
disc, so I was a bit peeved. Resolved not to allow a weekend to
go by CD-less, I decided to get up early and go do some CD shopping.

If the CD stores in town fail to have any rock/metal, where is the
best place to go? Why the Casa de Inbred of course! So I set off on
my trek to the Kingdom of Decatur. As I drove through the Illinois
countryside, I watched the serfs toiling in the fields. At least now
they had horses to pull the plows. Before the wall came down the
plight of the masses in Illinois was truly horrible. It is my deepest
hope that running water and indoor plumbing will soon come to
central Illinois. After all, it's bad enough that the Decaturians
have to give up 80% of their crop to the nobility, and forage for
roots and berries for sustenance, at least allow them some pittance
of civilization!

But I digress...

Cousin Toothy was blasting Anthrax when I arrived. "Hey Dayun! I ain't
heared this here album in must be 10 years. I wuz a headbanger yuh
know!" Imagine my surprise. I hadn't thought one could mosh to banjo
music....

Most of the discs I picked up were new CDs, and most metal.

First, one I have for sale:

Soundtrack - Black Roses. 1988. Metal Blade Records.
   This one is tough to find, and no self-respecting Mark Free
   fan should be without it. Features 4 tracks from the group
   "Black Roses" (Mark Free, Carmine Appice, Chuck Wright, Mick Sweda,
   Alex Masi), and tracks from Bang Tango, Lizzy Borden, King Kobra,
   David Michael Phillips, Tempest, and Hallow's Eve. Artwork is
   gem (not a coutout), disc bottom is gorgeous, but there are
   faint scratches on the top of the disc (they do not affect play;
   I just listened to it all the way through). Make offer offlist.

And the ones to keep:

Electric Love Hogs - S/T. 1992. London Records.
   Respectable glammish hard rock. Worth the $1 it cost. I guess I
   got cheated tho: it's a promo copy, so it only has a black and
   white cover instead of a color one...

Barakade - Volume I. 1995. Magellan Records.
   Minor label stuff. Hey, wait a sec? You mean there was a band
   in the United States still doing hard rock in 1995???? I thought
   they'd all gone grunge by that point... :)

Samson - Shock Tactics. 1981. Sanctuary Records.
Samson - Survivors. 1983. Sanctuary Records.
   NWOBHM anyone? I already had "Head On", so I'd been meaning to
   pick these up for a while. When I saw them sitting in the used
   bin, I figured the pricing, err, umm, timing was right. The time
   line listed in the liner notes doesn't add up though. According
   to the information in the liner notes, "Survivors" was their
   debut. But it was released 2 years *after* Shock Tactics??? Eh?

Shockmachine - S/T. 1998. Sanctuary Records.
   Eh? I've never seen this before. Is it another one of those
   "Let's release it in the states years after the fact" discs?
   Side project of Markus Grosskopf (Helloween). I love the fact
   that a lot of the discs that previously were available only
   as imports (at import pricing) are now
   FINALLY seeing distribution here. Granted, some of them are
   only being released 2-5 years AFTER they were released in Europe
   (like the Stratovarius and Blind Guardian catalogs), but better
   late than never. It's nice to be able to pick these up in a
   retail store for $12.99...
   Musical verdict: *SNORE*. Bores me.

Mob Rules - Savage Land. 1999. Limb Music (Germany).
   Every now and then you see/hear a disc, and then forget about it
   entirely, only to have it re-enter your consciousness abruptly
   at a later date. I first heard this disc in July '99 when I was
   up at Impulse Records in Chicago, and I remember thinking that
   I should pick it up at some point. Never did. Now fixed.

Axel Rudi Pell - The Masquerade Ball. 2000. Steamhammer Records.
   Finally! I ordered it from Best Buy, but after 5 [CENSORED]
   weeks on backorder I finally said "[CENSORED] it!" and cancelled
   the order. Forgot about it until now. Again, fixed.

Nocturnal Rites - Afterlife. 2000. Century Media.
   Not bad, but I think I like their previous efforts better.

Steel Prophet - Dark Hallucinations. 1999. Nuclear Blast Records.
Steel Prophet - Messiah. 2000. Nuclear Blast Records.
   When I saw these guys at UltraSound 2000, they were one of the
   standout performances of the weekend for me. *Extremely*
   tight live, and a fun bunch of guys to boot. Of course I
   couldn't find any of their discs in this GODFORSAKEN STATE!!
   Fixed. I've listened to both discs, and my initial reaction:
   Messiah blows the doors off Dark Hallucinations. Seems to be
   quite a bit more polished, and much more interesting (to me
   anyway). Defnitely a keeper!

The last two discs I found were both unusual, and I'm guessing
at least somewhat scarce.

Didja ever just buy a disc because it *looked* out of print as hell,
even though you're not necessarily a fan? Well this first one definitely
falls into that category. Now that I've listened to it though, I
think it is quite a bit better than the other two by him I've heard:

Benny Mardones - Never Run Never Hide. 1980. PolyGram Records.
   When I pulled it out of the bin and saw the cover art, I said
   too myself "Damn, is this dated or WHAT?" As it turns out,
   I remember "Into the Night" as being a considerable radio hit.
   It goes for $30-70 on Ebay, so I think I did ok on this one for $5.

and lastly:

Great White - Back Tracks (1986 - 1991). 1992. Capitol Records.
   Eh? WTF is this thing? It's a promo-only 7 track EP.

   1. Rock Me (from "Once Bitten")
   2. Face the Day (long version - unreleased)
   3. House of Broken Love (live - from "Live in London")
   4. Congo Square (from "Hooked")
   5. Train to Nowhere (from "The Blue E.P.")
   6. Once Bitten Twice Shy (from "...Twice Shy")
   7. Afterglow (from "Hooked")

Neat item, eh?

That's all for now...

-Dan