The Scrounger's Report

Nov. 04, 2000

The Scrounger's Report, Vol. 39.

Been a while since I'd gone out scrounging, but today seemed like
a good day for it. Overall a decent day, but a few radical
disappointments, in particular the 2 CDs I spent the most for.

We'll start with the disappointments:

Dark Tranquillity - Skydancer. 1996. Century Media.
  For some stupid reason I thought this group was gothic
  doom. It isn't. It's melodic death metal, but not melodic
  enough. It's on the trade list if anyone wants it.

Morgana LeFay - S/T. 1999. Black Mark (Germany).
   What the FUCK is this festering piece of horseshit??!!??
   All the Lefay/Morgana Lefay I had obtained prior to this
   was reasonably decent euro power metal. This is grungy
   industrialized alternametal fecal matter. I'm usually
   a completist about most things, but this one goes immediately
   on the trade list (as if anyone would be stupid enough
   to want it). *spit*

One that came in the mail for me to review that I'm dreading
having to contact them about:

Robert Sweet - Love Trash. 2000. World Gone Mad.
   Oy vey. What the hell happened here? This is absolutely
   NOTHING like Stryper, that's for damned sure. I knew something
   was wrong when the cover letter described it as "alternative
   rock". It is grunge crap to the Nth degree. Every now and
   then there are hints of harmonies shining through, but
   I find it to be unlistenable. I *really* do not want to
   have to do a formal review of this. Bleagh.

And the ones I'll keep:

V/A - The Album Network Tuneup #80. 1992.
   I'm always on the lookout for discs in this promo series;
   it's a good cross-section of music. Tracks on this one:
    1. Little Village - Solarr Sex Panel
    2. The Men - Church of Logic, Sin and Love
    3. War Babies - Blue Tomorrow
    4. Lance Keltner - The Party's Over
    5. Alice Cooper - Feed My Frankenstein
    6. MSG - Never Ending Nightmare
    7. The Levellers - One Way
    8. Jesse Strange - Love on the Telephone
    9. Shooting Gallery - House of Ecstasy
   10. Leon Russell - No Man's Land
   11. Slaves of New Brunswick - Kinky
   12. Slik Toxik - Helluvatime
   13. Webb Wilder - Sittin' Pretty
   14. The Charlatans UK - Weirdo
   15. Terry Reid - If You Let Her
   16. Mother's Finest - Generator

V/A - R.E.X. '95 Sampler. 1995. R.E.X. Music
    1. Sixpence None the Richer - Angeltread
    2. Choir - Speckled Bird
    3. Whitecross - Goodbye Cruel World
    4. Jerusalem - City on Fire
    5. Glenn Kaiser - Ain't Much Difference
    6. Argyle Park - Gutterboy
    7. Bliss Bliss - When the World's Asleep
    8. Tammy Trent - Your Love Is For Always
    9. Soul Shock Remedy - Slow Burn
   10. Resurrection Band - Surprise
   11. The Waiting - Israel
   12. Villanelle - Call Me Christian
   13. Nick Giaconia - Center of the Earth
   14. Hot Pink Turtle - A Little Groove
   15. Velocipede - Don't You Lose It
   16. Six Feet Deep - Struggle
   17. Paramecium - Injudicial
   18. Crashdog - Question Stupidity
   19. Living Sacrifice - Sorrow Banished
   20. Believer - Trilogy of Knowledge

V/A - The Hard Report, Vol. 2. 1990.
    1. Mystery Track (The Knack - Rocket O' Love)
    2. Drivin' and Cryin' - Fly Me Courageous
    3. Blue Rodeo - Til I Am Myself Again
    4. Love/Hate - She's an Angel
    5. Rik Emmett - Big Lie
    6. Katmandu - When the Rain Comes
    7. The Box - Temptation
    8. Rhino Bucket - One Night Stand
    9. John Eddie - Inbetween Days
   10. Johnny Van Zant - Love Is Not Enough
   11. Cry Wolf - Pretender
   12. Kentucky Headhunters - My Daddy Was a Milkman
   13. Trouble Tribe - Here Comes Trouble
   14. Firehouse - Don't Treat Me Bad
   15. Ashley Cleveland - Willy
   16. Dave Stewart - Love Shines
   17. Darden Smith - Midnight Train
   18. Suicidal Tendencies - Send Me Your Money

V/A - Hellion Records Promo #1. 2000. Hellion Records
    1. Lordian Guard - Invaders
    2. Heir Apparent - Questions
    3. Twisted Tower Dire - Hail Dark Rider
    4. Doomsword - Warbringers
    5. Skylark - Welcome
    6. Pandemonium - Wings of the Wind
    7. Shadows of Steel - Hawk and Lion
    8. Eddie Antonini - Fear of the Moon
    9. Projecto - Freedom
   10. Templar - Wholly Insane
   11. Heir Apparent - Tear Down the Walls

V/A - Metal Heat. 1992. Priority Records.
    1. L.A. Guns - The Ballad of Jayne
    2. Nelson - Love and Affection
    3. Bad English - Possession
    4. Alice Cooper - Only My Heart Talkin'
    5. Giant - I'll See You In My Dreams
    6. Cheap Trick - Can't Stop Fallin' in Love
    7. REO Speedwagon - Live It Up
    8. Rush - Closer to the Heart
    9. Alias - More Than Words Can Say

The Great Kat - Bloody Vivaldi. 1998.
    Weird. What is the point of a 6-minute EP?
    Not to mention that this chick is SERIOUSLY deranged...

Lawnmower Deth - Return of the Fabulous Metal Bozo Clowns. 
    1992. Earache Records.
    Love the group name. Music is mediocre.

Brian White and Justice - The Least that I Can Do. 1995. Diadem Music.
    Hmmm... never saw this one before...

New Jerusalem - S/T. 1997. Bulletproof.
    CCM hard rock. Somewhat disjointed. Interesting though.

Little Caesar - S/T. 1990. Geffen.
    Completist fodder.

Kix - Live. 1993. Atlantic.
    Ditto.

Dokken - Tooth and Nail. 1984. Elektra.
   I'm so ashamed that I didn't already have this. I should
   be flogged.

Bardeux - Bold as Love. 1988. Synthicide/Enigma.
   Dance pop stuff, not bad.

Hittman - S/T. 1988. Roadracer/Steamhammer.
   Had it years and years ago, traded it away. Now I'm
   wondering why. Classic '80s heavy metal.

Steel Prophet - The Goddess Principle. 1995. Brainstorm.
   More completist material; not as good as the recent efforts.

The Corrs - In Blue. 2000. Lava/Atlantic.
   Whaddayathink? Pop disc of the year? Could be...

Breathless - Picture This (Best of). 1993. Razor and Tie.
   '70s AORish rock. Decent, but not phenomenal.

Tourniquet - Acoustic Archives. 1998. Tourniquet Productions.
   Lighter fare from this CCM metal group. I never knew
   Vince Dennis of Steel Prophet was in Tourniquet. ???

Frozen Ghost - Shake Your Spirit. 1991. Atlantic.
   A disc I never got around to picking up. For $2 I said
   "why not?"...

Meat Loaf - Back From Hell (Very Best of). 1993. Columbia (Germany)
   How often do you stumble across a German greatest hits
   CD lying in a backwater pawn shop in central Illinois?
   Answer: only if you're on acid. Being the Meat Loaf
   completist I am, I had to snag it. It's somewhat cool
   in that it has one of the tracks he did with Ted Nugent,
   which are usually overlooked.

Stranger - No More Dirty Deals. 1991. Thunderbay.
   I'd forgotten this the last time I was buy, thinking I
   already had it. Well, I had a CDR of it. Big difference.

Resurrection Band - Rainbow's End. 1979. Grrrrr Records.
   This was a surprise. Considerably better than I anticipated;
   better than a lot of their later material. Very reminiscent
   of early Jefferson Airplane, perhaps slightly heavier.

Kamelot - The Expedition. 2000. Noise Records.
   Excellently performed live disc plus 3 unreleased tracks.
   The instrumental rendition of "We Three Kings" is quite
   good.

Symphony X - V. 2000. Metal Blade Records.
   Yus! Quite excellent power prog metal. At times the lead
   vocalist exhibits similarities to early Steve Walsh, but
   in a heavier vein....

Nevermore - Dead Heart, in a Dead World. 2000. Century Media.
   Excellent!! Kinda bizarre. Power metal but not. The bass
   and drum lines are quite "modern", but the guitar riffs
   and solos are straight out of the '80s. Vocals alternating
   between a contemporary heavy dark metal style (clean vox)
   and traditional euro power metal styling. The cover of
   Simon and Garfunkel's "Sound of Silence" is quite intriguing,
   in that as opposed to the cover done by Heir Apparent,
   Nevermore completely abandons the original melody constructs,
   instead adapting the lyrics to a completely new melody.
   This is quite the album! That's what makes the 2 CDs I listed
   at the top of this post even more annoying: I put back
   2 of Nevermore's other discs to pick up the Dark Tranquillity
   and Morgana Lefay CDs. AUGH!!!!

Lastly, a whole slew of CD singles. I'm always interested in
picking up hard rock/heavy metal singles/promos. What makes it
sweeter is that (1) they knocked 'em all down to $1-2 each, and
as I was leaving they said "I think we have a box somwehere in
the back full of old CD singles; I'll try to dig them out by
the next time you're in." Damn, that sucks.

Halford - Resurrection. 2000. Metal-Is. Promo.

Frankie Goes to Hollywood - Relax. 1994. 5 different mixes.

The Knack - One Day At a Time. 1991. Promo.

Sleeze Beez - Stranger Than Paradise. 1990. Promo
   (still sealed even!)

Lynch Mob - River of Love. 1991. Promo.

Motley Crue - Angela. 1992. Promo.

Kik Tracee - Don't Need Rules. 1991. Promo.

L.A. Guns - Face Down. 1994. Promo.
   (contains 2 edits of the title track, plus
    2 "non-LP tracks": "Death in America" and
    "Empire Down")

Faster Pussycat - Belted, Buckled, and Booted. 1992.
   4 tracks:
   1. Nonstop to Nowhere
   2. Too Tight (non-LP)
   3. Charge Me Up (non-LP)
   4. You're So Vain (Carly Simon cover)


Well, time to go listen to some music; a rather productive day, wot?

-Dan