The Scrounger's Report

Oct. 20, 2001

A thrashingly good Scrounger's Report

I 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