Archive for June 2009
Vauxdvihl – To Dimension Logic (obscure prog)
I really can’t remember exactly when I first heard this but it was undoubtedly via Kelz and Denis Gulbey of Sentinel Steel Records around 96 or 97. Doesn’t matter. This is a great album all the way around and pretty obscure. Vauxdihl hail 
from Melbourne, Australia.
I highly recommend checking this out if you’re a fan of Fates Warning’s Perfect Symmetry. It reminds me a lot of that album although not quite as good. No, this album isn’t particularly groundbreaking but it’s a nice change from all the trad and the death metal that I have been spinning lately.
Since this is very out of print and relatively hard to find, I uploaded it for your listening pleasure. Download here.
Dark Angel – Darkness Descends
I’m pretty sure it was spring 1987 and I was down on Atlantic Ave at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront hanging out for 
whatever reason. There was a little record store there that I can’t remember the name of. I’m pretty sure it was an independent store and don’t hink it lasted more than a few years. I can’t even remember if anyone was with me…maybe Robert S. Anyhoo, we were browsing the cassettes and I saw Dark Angel’s Darkness Descends. I immediately knew that this would be my purchase. I had seen the ads for this in various metal mags and it was on Combat Records which had a pretty good track record of bands so far.
I remember getting in my 66′ Nova 4dr and heading back home while the tape started. I was immediately blown away. The drums. Holy shit, the drums! I remember seeing fotos in magazines of the band and the big huge drummer in shades looming over them in every foto. I was fortunate enough to meet him earlier this decade and he was the coolest mofo in the world.
But back to this massive album. There’s not a stinker in the bunch but my faves are Burning of Sodom, Black Prophecies and Perish In Flames. Sure it’s a tad sloppy and severely underproduced, but it set a/the standard for early thrash and death metal in my opinion, especially for drummers.
When I finally saw them live in 1989, I got to help sing Merciless Death as the new singer said he didn’t know the lyrics that well. I was the happiest acne-faced, bad-haired kid in Virginia Beach that night!
If you’re into classic metal and especially early thrash, you NEED this album.
I finally found the foto of Gene and me from 2001. 
Thank You Metal Blade Records!
For giving me a lifetime of enjoyment from your early selection of albums.
- metal massacre 1
- bitch – damnation alley
- demon flight – s/t
- metal massacre 2
- warlord – deliver us
- savage grace – the dominatress
- bitch – be my slave
- metal massacre 3
- armored saint – s/t ep
- obsession – marshall law ep
- witchkiller – day of the saxons
- metal massacre 4
- slayer – show no mercy
- pandemonium – heavy metal soldiers
- 3rd stage alert – s/t
- satan – court in the act
- silver mountain – shakin’ brains
- trouble – assassin 12″
- trouble – s/t
- lizzy borden – give ’em the axe ep
- metal massacre 5
- total destruction (compilation)
- warlord – aliens 12″
- slayer- haunting the chapel
- fates warning – night on brocken
- voivod – war and pain
- omen – battle cry
- hellhammer – apocalyptic raids
- warlord – and the cannons of destruction have begun
- mad max – rollin’ thunder
- dark heart – shadows of the night
- thrust – fist held high
- celtic frost – morbid tales
- attacker – battle at helms deep
- sye – turn on the fire
- metal massacre 6
- slayer – live undead
- tyrant – legions of the dead
- destruction – sentence of death
- slayer – hell awaits
- trouble – the skull
- hallow’s eve – tales of terror
- lizzy borden – love you to pieces
- sodom – in the sign of evil
- hirax – raging violence
- nasty savage – s/t
- destruction – infernal overkill
- celtic frost – emperor’s return
- mark edwards – code of honor
- omen – warning of danger
- fates warning – the spectre within
- pandemonium – hole in the sky
- cryptic slaughter – convicted
- metal massacre 7
- bloodlust – guilty as sin
- predator – easy prey
- sound barrier – speed of light
- juggernaut – baptism under fire
- sentinel beast – depths of death
- lizzy borden – murderess metal road show
- best of metal blade vol 1
- cirith ungol – one foot in hell
- flotsam and jetsam – doomsday for the deceiver
- unknown
- unknown
- deaf dealer – keeper of the flame
- sacrifice – torment in fire
- detente – recognize no authority
- krank – hideous
- hallow’s eve – death and insanity
- exxplorer – symphonies of steel
- warlord – thy kingdom come
- sodom – obsessed by cruelty
- destruction – eternal devastation
- savage grace – after the fall from grace
- hirax – hate, fear and power
- speed (compilation)
- tyrant – too late to pray
- cities – annihilation absolute
- heretic – torture knows no boundaries
Man, there are surely some heavy hitters. The ones listed in italics are ones that I never heard and/or owned. Best info I have as to why 64 and 65 were never released was that there were some contract disputes. When I worked as a distrubutor for Metal Blade years ago, I tried finding out what 2 LPs those were, but no one seemed to know, including Brian Slagel. The contract dispute explanation was the only thing they could provide. At the height of my vinyl collecting I probably had 60/80. Now I probably have 5 or 6 of them. Sometimes I wish I had kept them.
Renee Reviews stuff.
So way back in 1987 when my first real band first got together, this beautiful girl with big hair (no offense Renee) 
and her gorgeous friend Carla used to come over to our house on the farm and hang out during band practice. Realize that my band practiced in my bedroom…9pc Pearl drum set, 2 guitars, bass and sometimes a singer, a bed, a desk and a dresser in a roughly 12×12 room. It was pretty cramped in there. It was always fun having them over there because they were a lot prettier than us sausage heads.
A few years later I started working for VDOT as a surveyor. I had met him a time or 2 back in the band days when we would either go to Renee’s house to pick her up or drop her off. It was never a pleasurable experience but we won’t discuss that any further. Renee’s dad was one of the survey chiefs and ultimately the big boss of the survey department during my tenure as one of the “grubs”. He was always a cool guy. He ultimately moved into a position in the design section and I moved to utilities shortly after. It was cool because I got to work with him more closely. I knew that Renee had moved to LA some years before and had lost touch with her, but her Dad gave me her number when I decided to make a trip to LA to do some business with a few record labels there (Century Media and Metal Blade). Renee graciously invited me to come over and I went there the evening after we landed in LA. We ultimately went to the Hard Rock to see Wayne Kramer (MC5) do a spoken word thing with some poet dude. It was a weird show but fun to meet Wayne and hang out. Before the show, we hung out at Renee’s for a bit and I got to speak to James Hong 
on the phone for a minute as he was friends with Renee. One of the folks hanging out with us that night was John Skipp who wrote Fright Night! The dude was super cool. Anyway, that night and next morning were the only times I got to see Renee when I was there as my schedule was pretty tight with the record labels, but she made my trip that much better.
We spoke a few times since 1997 but not at all in the last 5-6 years. Thanks to social networking we’re in touch again and I’m happy about it. She was/is always the coolest. Now she’s doing movie reviews for The Examiner website. Renee has a very creative mind and I highly recommend that you check out her stuff.
The Metal Files 
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