The Metal Files

For many, Metal Massacre VII (MM VII) is considered the holy grail of the series put out by Metal Blade between 1982 and 2006.  Did anyone really care about any of these after maybe Metal Massacre XI?

This one has some awesome tunes on it.  Here’s the quick breakdown.

1.  Heretic – Impulse:  Pre-Mike Howe Heretic.  This one has Mike Torres from the mighty Abattoir!  Awesome song all the way around.  Heretic was great from beginning to end.  For as much as I liked the album with Mike Howe, I loved him in Metal Church.

2.  Sentinel Beast – Sentinel Beast:  Thrash!  I’ve tried and tried to like this band and could never really get into them.  The music is fine on this track but her vocals don’t do much for me at all.

3.  Flotsam & Jetsam – I Live, You Die:  Doomsday for the Deceiver, ’nuff said!  This is really an awesome song. and you can actually hear Newstead playing, something that didn’t happen with Metallica.  Love this song, love Doomsday.  Saw them live a few times in the late 80s and early 90s and they always ruled.

4.  Krank – Rented Heat: Wow.  This was an awesome song.  Absolutely love it.  Krank’s debut album was called Hideous.  Very fitting.  This was the only listenable song on it.  This one always reminded me of Accept to a degree.  Rented Heat seems to be about a renta-cop.  haha.  Still awesome .

Krank. Hideous!

5.  Mad Man – Backstabber:  Mid-paced metal.  Nothing really stands out for me on this at all.

6.  Detente – Widow’s Walk:  RIP Dawn Crosby.  Great thrash from a highly underrated band.  It’s pretty rare that I like female fronted metal bands, but this was one of them.  Dawn was the real deal.  Total hard luck woman who literally grew up on the streets and drank herself to death in the end.  Detente re-released Recognize No Authority a few years back.  Buy it.

7.  Commander – High N Mighty:  Another track that I love.  I think the vocals are what hooked me on this one.  The whole album is pretty good.  I’ll upload it one of these days.

8.  Juggernaut – In The Blood Of Virgins:  I love Juggernaut but not this song so much.  Features Bobby Jarzombek on drums.

9.  Cryptic Slaughter – Reich of Torture:  Blech.  Awful.  Some early forms of blast beats, sloppy as hell.

10.  Have Mercy – The Omen:  Great thrash!  Great vocals!  Great great!

11.  Titanic – The Awakening:  Not a bad song at all.  The intro is way too long and the production was pretty crappy.  But most songs sent to Metal Blade for this series were demos.  I’d like to hear more by these guys.  Some good progressive tendencies.

12.  Lost Horizon – Troubled Ways:  Great NWOBHM influenced song.  Reminds me a bit of Tokyo Blade.  Another band I’d like to hear a full album from.

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