The Scrounger's ReportOct. 20, 2001A thrashingly good Scrounger's ReportI received an order in the mail this week, plus I went out hunting today, so I've got a few discs to talk about. :) Upside: I bought gasoline for $1.05/gallon today, the lowest price I remember paying in about 3 years; since our gas prices are 20-40 cents more expensive than most other areas of the country, I'm guessing some parts have dropped below a buck a gallon; makes CD hunting trips more feasible! On to the CDs (most are metal; I'm going through a "heavy" phase :). Nasty Nasty - Get Some!!! 1990. Kack Publishing. Apparently a local sleaze glam band. Lead vocalist reminds me of Tom Keifer (Cinderella). A cool indie find. Burning Rain - S/T. 2000. Z Records. Burning Rain - Pleasure to Burn. 2001. Z Records. Doug's playing, as always, is awesome. Keith St. John is at least mediocre, as opposed to incredibly annoying live. When they do their more traditional AOR stuff (ballads, etc.) this is pretty decent. When St. John starts wanting to be Robert Plant I just want to remove the discs from the player. Note to Keith: STOP IT! Gardian - Voyager and Fusion (The Early Years). 2001. M8 Records. As with many of the albums they've dug out from beneath rocks the sound quality isn't the greatest at times, *BUT* if like me you're a fan of "First Watch" Guardian as opposed to the Jamie Rowe stuff, this will be a must-have. Deliverance - Greetings of Death. 2001. M8 Records. Haven't listened yet, but it's another M8 disc, so it might bite or it might be stellar. It's a collection of early demos. Loudness - Disillusion (Japanese Version). 1993. Denon (Japan). It's not bad, but it's not quite as good as the stuff they put out in their heyday. Good completist fodder though. Note to other Loudness completists (or fans of any Japanese metal bands): http://www.sentinelsteel.com has a very large inventory of releases from Japanese bands. This one was a sealed copy with OBI that cost me $16; quite reasonable as Japanese discs go. Steel Prophet - Into the Void. 1997. Brainstorm Records. Some numbnut is trying to sell a copy of this on Ebay for $50, claiming it's impossible to find. I got this one new also from Sentinel Steel for a whopping $14. Pretty good schtuff. Artch - Another Return to Church Hill (2 CD). 2001 (1988). Metal Blade Records (Germany). Artch - For the Sake of Mankind (2 CD). 2001 (1990). Metal Blade Records (Germany). Man, I'd forgotten how good these 2 albums are. Also how much a difference there is between the 2. "Another Return" is quite solid, but "For the Sake of Mankind" is just leaps and bounds above it; it's an absolute gem! Whomever did the remastering did one hell of a job as well. The disc 2 of Another Return won't play in my DVD player damnit, so I had to pop it in and play it on my computer. It's cool as hell to see a full live performance though; it holds up well over time. Dark Sanctuary - De Lumiere et d'Obscurite. 2000. Wounded Love Records. Son of a BITCH! So close and yet so far. Wonderful digipak packaging, this thing just screams "gothic metal". Well... it's half right. Gothic yes. Metal *bzzt*. Great orchestration with ethereal female vocals. It. Just. Never. Kicks. In. Basically an entire album of nothing but intros to gothic metal tunes. I found listening to it incredibly annoying, since I kept expecting it to bust into Tristania-like glory, but it never happened. Grr.... Pariah - The Kindred. 1988. Steamhammer (Germany). Excellent old-school technical thrash (I'm picking up a bunch of that stuff lately). "The Rope" especially kicks ass. Bolt Thrower - Realm of Chaos. 1989. Earache Records. I'm not sure *why* I like these guys, but I do. I don't think I like this one quite as much as "For Victory", but it's not bad, and since it's one I didn't own... Hexenhaus - The Edge of Eternity. 1990. Metal Blade Records. More thrash, this time from a Swedish band. Haven't listened all the way through yet, but seems par for the course. Stygian - Planetary Destruction. 1992. Leviathan Records. What, more thrash? You betcha! I think this one is a fairly tough find. Sacrifice - Forward to Termination. 1988. Restless/Metal Blade. You guessed it. More thrash. I'll need to sit down and listen to their later stuff to hear how it compares, but this one's pretty darned solid. That's all for now. -Dan |
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