Archive for the ‘album reviews’ Category
White Witch – S/T 1972
Here’s an odd one from my old vinyl collection. Danile and I were at Electric Smiles Records in Virginia 
Beach about 15 or so years ago rummaging through their $1 bins and I ran across both LPs from White Witch. They were automatically interesting for 2 reasons…band name and imagery. I bought them without hearing them. Why not? They were only $1 each. I think that was the same day we saw Pantera’s first 4 albums on LP as well, but they were like $15 each and I wasn’t into spending that kind of cash that day.
I had no idea what to expect from this band. Seeing that they were an early 70s band, I expected something sort of Sabbath-esque and maybe a little proggy like YES. Instead it’s a little more psychedelic with a few flashes of prog rock. Maybe a little Uriah Heep and Wishbone Ash thrown in for good measure. Overall this first eponymous album is pretty good with some catchy chorus and musical hooks here and there. I bought the CDs for these several years ago and they apparently sell for decent cash on eBay these days. I sold their 2nd CD on eBay a year or so ago for $40. I preferred the debut album so I kept it. Now it’s in the stack to be sold with much of my CD collection and I am making the transition to going almost completely digital. Interesting that they toured with Alice Cooper. That would have been a cool show to see for sure.
So if you’re into the trippy 70s rock, I highly recommend that you download this. It’s been out of print for a few years. Read up more on the band here.
I really dig the guy’s vocals. He has a Barry Gibb tenor thing sans the falsetto. Favorite tracks are You’re the One, Don’t Close Your Mind, And I’m Leaving, Illusion (double bass!) and Help Me Lord. I do tend to skip over Home Grown Girl and It’s So Nice To Be Stoned. They’re both a bit goofy but pretty normal for the time they were written.
Iron Maiden – No Prayer For The Dying (post facto review)
I used to be a collector of all vinyl Iron Maiden. I had a ton of stuff. I didn’t have every pressing of every album or EP, but I had most of them. It was crazy. My OCD always had me looking for Iron Maiden records the minute I’d hit a record store. Then No Prayer For The Dying came out 
and it seemed that Maiden had gone on marketing steroids. Sure, they were the kings of releasing stuff since day 1, but it seemed to get crazy in 1990. It was just too much. I did buy a lot of the related EPs and such but decided to end it. One reason was that the album, as I saw it at the time, wasn’t that good.
I saw that tour as well and had a good time although seeing Gers prance around on stage was utterly annoying. Anthrax opened up on their Persistence of Time Tour. They got pissed at the crowd for sitting down during their set. It was a former friend from high school, Rogerson and myself at the patriot Center near Washington, DC.
Last night I decided to listen to this album again. In a previous review I dogged it out pretty badly. Listening to this again last night I really only cringed a few times. I think I detested it so much back then because Adrian wasn’t on it, even though he gets partial credit for writing the worst song on the album, Hooks in You. Musically it’s fine but the lyrics are silly. Most likely they were written by Bruce Bruce. I blame him. The song sounds like it could have been on Tattooed Millionaire.
Overall I found listening to No Prayer rather enjoyable. It was a nice trip down memory lane and there are a lot of songs on here that I actually like…a lot! But Holy Smoke, Hooks In You and Bring Your Daughter are just dumb songs. Absolutely horrible. My absolute favorites would be The Assassin, Public Enema Number One, Run Silent Run Deep and even Mother Russia. Tailgunner is just a mediocre track.
One thing that was blatantly apparent on here was the differences in the guitar solos. There are no doubts as to who is soloing in each song. To put is in simple terms, all of Jannick’s solos suck. Seriously. All of them. I still think he sucks and still wish that he’d just go away.
In my original review I gave this album 2/10. I am going to change it to a 6/10. It’s energetic and Steve Harris was still a prominent feature in their sound. Nowadays he’s just in the background. What a pity.
If you were like me and hated this album back then, give it a new chance, especially after hearing how much they have changed in the last decade.
My ticket stub and a sticker that Maiden dropped from the ceiling at the end of their opening song, Tailgunner. (click to enlarge)
Tiamat – Wildhoney – CD Review
Tiamat first caught my attention with their debut album Astral Sleep. It was raw, simple, dark…almost run of the mill 
death metal. Typically mid-paced but it didn’t suck by any means. Daniel and I went tape shopping (yes, I was still buying them in 1991!). He picked up Solitude Aeturnus’ debut and I picked up the Tiamat. Great picks by both of us.
I certainly picked up Clouds in 1992 and I believe it was in one of the first 100 CDs I ever owned. I liked it a lot even though they slowed down a bit more. It was a little more atmospheric. Cool album for sure.
But then came 1994.
Wildhoney.
WILDHONEY.
I remember the first time I popped it in. I was doing some stuff in the house…probably playing TecmoSuperBowl or something. I just remember that the album felt like it was over soon after it began. It’s 42 minutes long but it flows. The way they tied all of the songs in together was simply brilliant. Wildhoney got even more mellow than Clouds. They added a certain sense of Pink Floyd to their sound…imagine the song Fearless by Pink Floyd with distortion and better production. It was awesome. It still is. There is not a bad song on it and I think it should be in every metalhead’s collection.
This album gets regular play, at least once a month. It’s a great one to drive to. Very smooth. They use death metal vocals, but not in a cookie monster sort of way. You can understand everything that Johan sings.
Even though it is very much still in print, I think it needs to be shared. So here ya go. Listen to it in order. Many times.
I don’t get high but sometimes I have thought about what it would be like to listen to this one on mushrooms. Let me know, ok?
Megadeth – Endgame (2009) – CD Review
I like Megadeth…really, I love Megadeth. But I’m no fanboy. I really stopped listening to them when Countdown To 
Extinction came out. I even had a little trouble listening to Rust In Peace, but it’s pretty tolerable now. I’ll also be at the front of the line to say that I prefer Megadeth’s first 3 albums over Metallica’s. Dave is a riffmaster and I am sure there are a lot of good songs on the albums between Countdown and The World Needs a Hero, but I just can’t care.
Those first 2 are simply incredible. The perfect combination of power, sweet riffage, great solos, drumming and heroin. Even So Far So Good has some really high points.
But they whimped out after Rust In Peace. Other than Friendman’s Dragon’s Kiss album, his playing never did much for me, so I stayed away from his era of ‘Deth.
Then The System Has Failed came out with Chris Poland back in the ban for the album! I had to hear it…Loved it! His trademark sound was all over the album. I got to see Gigantour and finally got to meet Dave. It was a memorable experience. That guy is pretty smart and a phenomenal guitarist. I also like United Abominations a lot.
So here we are in 2009. Another Megadeth album. Endgame. I’m impressed. Dave has always hired good guitarists and Chris Broderick (Jag Panzer) is a worthy member. He’s got some great solos on Endgame as does Dave. It’s pretty easy to tell who is who. Dave’s style is pretty unique. I don’t think he gets the credit he deserves as a guitarist, especially as a soloist.
Endgame is pretty good all the way through. The opening track is an instrumental and it does remind me of Set The World Afire in a few spots, but it doesn’t detract from the great solos. I’ve listened to this about 6 times now and I think my least favorite track is Bite The Hand. I was a little nervous when I heard about the ballad, but it’s not bad at all. My favorite tracks would be This Day We Fight, The Hardest Part of Letting Go, Endgame and 44 Minutes. Shawn Drover and James Lomenzo do a great job of holding down the rhythm.
Now I do have a few criticisms. Dave’s vocals have never been great by any stretch of the imagination. He’s certainly lost a step in his vocals over the last 2 albums. It’s natural really. He’s no spring chicken these days. They’re not bad, but he sounds a little weaker. That guy used to have one of the greatest wails in metal! I’ll also make a small complaint about the lyrics. Sure, metal has always had a bit of silliness and Megadeth sliced their share of the cheese. But it doesn’t really detract from the record. The record is good. Really good. Very rarely do I buy albums on their release day, but for modern era Megadeth, I make the exception.
Nice work, Dave. 8.5/10.
Sorry, no free download here. Go buy it, slacker.
http://www.myspace.com/megadeth is streaming it for free right now as well.
Overlife – Between Passion and Madness – 1998
1998. I was really buying a lot of music at the time betweenwhat I was selling through my online music store and what 
I was buying for myself. A lot of the stuff I was buying for myself was from Denis Gulbey at Sentinel Steel Records. Back in the old days when you could call in and jibber jabber, Denis recommended Overlife to me. So…thanks Denis!
Overlife hails from Alicante, Spain. I built their first website (long since gone) and used to correspond with Fabricio quite a bit. What really drew me to them was Leandro’s voice. Very unique and a lot of emotion. The music itself was a little sloppy in places and even the vocals seem a bit out of key sometimes, but this album is really good overall. It’s sung completely in English but I included 2 bonus tracks in Spanish. They are good European power/prog metal with a hint of wanting to sound like Dream Theater. Their later albums sounded more like DT type prog which was a turnoff for me. So, this album it is. I still listen to it a few times a year. It’s a bright memory of a darker time in my life where the death of my father and my divorce seemed to dominate my every day life.
So if you’re into the aforementioned style of power metal, I recommend this highly.
The Metal Files 
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