Boxes of Metal part DREIII!!!

Alright... Let's continue this thaaaang... (yep, poor attempt at saying thing, NOT THONG by the way) :P
Yup, well, the SLAYER box set ain't half bad. They really tried to include lotsa stuff in that one. Too much actually, as the so-called deluxe version of SOUNDTRACK TO APOCALYPSE (well... how many Slayer boxes are there on SLAYER!!! Completely SLAYERised SLAYER SLAYERRRR!) with its 4-cd and especially the dvd is built from bits and pieces, only scratching the surface of what could have been brilliant and kind of narrowing it down to mediocre. Shame. But still, it is SLAYYYEEEEERRRRRRRRRRR!!!!

Hey music lover? Want to buy a huge pile of random shit? "Hell no!" Umm, btw it's slayer... "SLAYEERRR! HELL YEAH!

So, why choose the deluxe edition? Because of the live gig disc? Well, the gig's okay, but better than the cd is the packaging. GET THE BLOODPACK! Little skulls circling in the red fluidy mush... aaaahhhh, that's so disgusting it is pretty! Ahhh how my flesh creeps everytime I play with that stress toy:P

Squeezing the bloodpack feels better than squeezing your best friend's supermodel-girlfriend. And that's a proven fact!

What's up with these "expanded-collection" box sets anyway? You mean, there is a fan who hasn't bought Reign in Blood or Seasons, but is willing to buy the overly priced box?? (although I got mine used... Stinking of cigarrettes and dirty whiskey vomits - I might have complained, but then again I figured this is SLAYERRRR so I guess it's better that way>:D). Yep, hip hip hooray! You have rare old live tracks like "Ice titan". But what's wrong with blitzkrieg, assassin or night rider? Why didn't they include the whole Anaheim 83 show and leave out the SECOND COMPLETE CD OF STUDIO TRACKS EVERYBODY OWN ALREADY? Or how about giving us a complete live disc from South of Heaven tour? I don't even like the album so much as Araya isn't yelling his usual way, but still... hearing bootlegs from that tour with songs like silent scream, behind the crooked cross, ghosts of war or kill again is cool. I could add spill the blood, read between the lies and live undead... That's a heck of a lot of songs not released on Decade of Aggression, that fans would love to have on an official live release. Same goes for the dvd. Instead of mish mash why not include a whole show like the one from Cleveland 91? Or Los Angeles 84?

...aaaand here's the reasonable version for slayer fans. Though reasonable and Slayer seems to be an oxymoron... Moron is, however, an apt description of us Slayer fans. But at least we are proud morons:)

The rarities are otherwise nicely present, actually I could live without those techno-atrocities with Atari or Ice-T or Hot Chocolate or any other beverages. Or God Hates Us All-bonus tracks. And where's Born to be Wild or Hand of Doom? Weren't released yet? That ain't no excuse!!! However, Piece by Piece with the bass intro is nice and thanks for putting at least the Ice Titan there. 55/100... NOOO! SLAYERR/ SLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

shNITPICKER 2 - METAL FURY on 70s PRIEST

Well, it seems that majority of Judas Priest fans like either British Steel, Screaming for Vengeance, Defenders of the Faith (Tipton's favorite, I gather) or Painkiller the best. If you are a fan of Turbo, leave this blog... NOW! Go back to your Frankie goes to Hollywood and/or Wham albums and leave me in peace. If Point of Entry means perfection to you, then I say... well, actually write... ummm... well, you are rather weird. In that case you may stay as long as you do not drink the colors of the blog ears painted with noisy hollow.

Here we are, grinding our teeth, dwelling and picking into the shi... erm, nit 'n' grit again!

 Let us dwell now into MY favourite albums. Back to the 70s, maaaan! Sad Wings! What a bunch of great songs! And still... there is still not a good version of it available on cd *saaaaad face :((((* (See my futile attempts the modernise the blog with smileys... or... cry-eys?).  The General problem for a long time was, that Gull records had the rights to Priest's two early albums (the first of which is a dull blues album, so who cares... unfortunately the second one is my favourite, so there's the problem!). As Gull needed money they released different versions (and even stupid collection, like the notorious Hero, Hero) of ye same ole material they had. Many of these versions are not only redundant but also substandard in quality for one way or another. I have three versions of this album and each one has its drawbacks.

Convict ACD 1157 aka Attic. Notable: Yellow like snow near the brewery for incontinents.

So what's wrong? Let's start with the version I got first, the Attic one (ACD 1157). It is not the worst of these, mind you. The songs sound okay (obviously the album was recorded cheap and quick in the first place, but that can't be much helped afterwards). But the cover art is lacking. I have never seen an official version of a classic metal album that contains no booklet - just the cover of the album and a foggy picture in the back. The booklet opens but is completely white inside. And the back cover is all yellow, just a list of songs. Of course it is the songs that matter, but such a classic arsenal of killer songs deserves better, methinks.

Convict SMMCD 562 aka SnapperTurd. Notable: Unreliable, will kick you in the ass for 97% of the length, then suddenly will kick you in the teeth instead.

Then there's the hideous 1998 remaster, Snapper music, I believe (SMMCD 562). The cover art is better, there actually are pages and a short essay inside the booklet. Backcover is to my knowledge the same as on the vinyl including more foggy pics of the band, not just the yellowish fog included in the Attic version. It sounds good too... until we reach Island of Domination. There's a little, but VERY ANNOYING glitch in the track. Right after the slow & heavy middle section the pace picks up.. and there it is... in 3'23-24 a small, but still recognisable BUT THEREFORE EVEN MORE INFURIATING swaying in the guitars like some drowsy, brainless, drooling mixer falling on the controls for a second! IN THE FINAL TRACK! Why!!! So close to being good version, it all blows to smithereens in just about the last possible moment! HEADS ARE GONNA ROLL, you arseholes!

Finally, Priest decided it was time to officially release these two classic albums the way the band intended them to be released. So, naturally, as a Priest fanboy I snapped the Complete Albums box set, which included both of these. No bonus tracks, just the albums like they were meant to be heard. I must admit that the tracks sound good, but again, I have a problem... They changed the goddamn TRACKLIST! You see, when the album was released Gull records made a booboo. They swapped sides (on purpose or accident?? who knows...). So, as far as I have known this album, Victim of changes has been the opener, followed by the Ripper and the magnificient Dreamer Deceiver/Deceiver-twosome. But no more, now it is the b-side like the band always wanted it to be. But for me, it ruins the flow of the album!!! I love Tyrant, it's my fave on the album, so it works well as an opener, but Gevocide, for me, is a long, a bit plodding slowburner that doesn't really work as an second track... It sounds better near the end of the setlist... or tracklist. And Island of Domination is an easy-going, relaxed, humorous s&m-track with a nice echo effect closing the album, not a middleway flow-breaker!!! For me, this tracklist just doesn't work. Priest almost always had a darkly humorous track near the end (Heavy Duty&Defenders, Love You to Death, Evil Fantasies, Devil's Child...) not in the middle! The album was better the "wrong way". And, I must admit, I don't really like the miniature-lp-replica-whatever-cardboard -pieces-of-scheisse that much. MY FAVOURITE ALBUM OF MY FAVOURITE BAND IS RUINED AGAIN!!! Once again so close, and ANOTHER DISAPPOINTMENT! Is it so hard to release my favourite album with the old tracklist and a decent coverart in a regular jewel case with no special extras?? Are You Serial????

Yep, yep... Nice work Columbia. How about saving the money you make selling this albums FOR AN EAR AND BRAIN OPERATION??

And how about Sin After Sin, that's a good album too... But they SCREWED THAT ONE TOO! The original edition had wrong titles and a start marker. Track 5 is Let Us Prey/Call for the Priest and track 6 Raw Deal, but the original cd claimed it was "track 5 Let Us Prey and track 6 Call for the Priest/Raw Deal". The marker was an equally stupid mistake, it is evident that Here Come the Tears starts softly and grows into a huge, exploding crescendo, but they attached this soft, beautiful intro at the end of the preceding track! So yet again (cf. Maiden's Powerslave) if I want to listen to this emotional track as a whole, I'd have to rewind or fast forward the preceding track which, if you didn't guess it already, IS VERY VERY ANNOYING! If I noticed this just by listening to the album, WHAT THE HELL ARE THE RECORD COMPANIES DOING! Glitches, can't-be-bothered-booklets, wrongly named tracks, falsely placed markers... Doesn't anyone in a big company ever listen to this stuff BEFORE they release it and take our money?? Is there any quality control?? MONEYGRABBING PILLOCKS!

This remaster is perfect. Except for the fact that NEITHER OF THE BONUS TRACKS HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THIS ALBUM, YOU CRETINS!

 

shNITPICKER 1 - METAL FURY on Maiden's Powerslave

What could be more pleasing than to be a besserwisser, a pedant that turns everyone not completely obsessed with music off with his minute details and especially the analyses emerging from these essential facts? Let's see if this will catch fire and encourage people to share their observations - i.e. to nag furiously. Also, if some or all of my details aren't correct, feel free to correct them in your comments.

You claim there are mistakes in MY band's booklets?? Well, you feel lucky punk? Go 'head n proove it, you no good blogger! Let's see who calls the shots around here!

Iron Maiden's 1998 remaster series is all in all nicely done. To my ears, the tracks are remastered well and, as these discs are enhanced, they contain goodies like the studiovideos (even if the resolution isn't very good by current standards), "exclusive" photos and pictures of Eddie and a bit of ye good old yada yada on the tour and recording. It's a pity these features can only be accessed via a specific program, but still, considering these were made in 1998, they work quite nicely.

Check out that small photo on the extreme right. It's an enormous, shameful mistake. Have a pair of binoculars and you can actually spot the error.

The booklets are quite generous, offering lyrics and plenty of pictures. My favourite is probably the Piece of Mind as it includes a funny pic about a brain-burger eating Eddie. Furthermore, there is even a picture (with the caption "Bruce gets arrested") of a model from the infamous gig in Indianapolis, 7th of August 1983, where Dickinson tore the top of a model during 22 Acacia Avenue and (almost) got sued... but that's another story.

So Adrian Smith wore this t-shirt during World Slavery tour? Well, that gives much more meaning to Clairvoyant and Prophecy, I guess...

However, there are some photos that aren't corrected. Powerslave booklet, for instance, includes several photos where you can either see icebergs on the stage or Adrian Smith is dressed on a shirt, that did not yet exist in 1984-1985 (obviously taken from the Seventh Tour of a Seventh Tour in 88-89).

Well... Okay, sir blogger. Just shoot us.

My biggest beef, however, is the starter mark on the title track, Powerslave. Yes, the intros to a song are often redundant waste of time, however, in this case the intro isn't that long and - more importantly - it includes that cool drum fill Nicko kickstarts the song with. IT HAS TO BE THERE YOU IDIOTS! Who chose the move this marker, as it in the previous versions had always been at the start of the intro??? It is a very little detail, but if I want to listen to my favourite song from Maiden, I'd appreciate some idiot did not SCREW IT UP!

METALWORKS '67-'12... or Another useless list of my all-time favourites

Me? A fanboy? Naaah... Well... Maybe I am. I guess it depends on the way you define what a fanboy is. Yes, I am very fanatic about music. If I love something I will banter (and write blog entries?) for days about a single riff or lyric or note on a single song. If I hate something I will ridicule and curse it for days. That is, of course, because I am a music afficionado (a better word for a person who has absolutely no personal life and gets more excited about a song than anything available in the immediate surroundings). So, the less life you have the more obsessed you become with details.

I am passionate about music, however, maybe I am not a real fanboy after all. There is not one single band that would have never made a bad album. Actually, it's probably the other way round: Probably most decent rock / metal bands have made at least one good album. Still, I tend to get stuck with these following sons of cactuses' anuses (yeah, I know it should be cacti... but nobody says cacti...).

THE VARIETIES OF METAL ONE CAN GET HIGH ON... or, which the haters can shove up their anusholes:

70s GODS:
1.BLACK SABBATH (master, bloody, sabotage) essential for heavy music! I would rank 'em my alltime #3.
2.URIAH HEEP (salisbury, look, live january) a bit progressive and occasionally silly, but still great

3.GENESIS (foxtrot, live, lamb) progressive, but sometimes heavy (cf Knife, Hogweed, parts of Supper)
4.KISS (kiss, hell, alive, creatures, lick, alive III) childhood fave, still enjoy their heavier stuff. Alltime #4?
5.RUSH (fly, 2112, kings, hemi, pics) progressive rock, usually intelligent lyrics, but still rock attitude
6.THIN LIZZY (jail, fox, live, black) a rare quality group in that they kept getting heavier
7.JUDAS GODDAMN PRIEST (wings, sin, stained, killing, unleashed, painkiller) number one, easily!!!

70s demigods:
JIMI HENDRIX (experience, axis, rays) the great influencer
QUEEN (sheer, jazz my faves, others in between good too) very versatile, rarely heavy, but often rock
SCORPIONS  (trance, virgin, blackout) roth was amazing! a really interesting band in the 70s
SPARKS (woofer, kimono, propaganda, insdiscreet) not heavy by any means, but perverted pop rock

70s small mercies:
DAVID BOWIE (man who sold the world) probably his only heavy album
IGGY POP & THE STOOGES (raw power's dickinson mix) punk, i know... but with attitude
SAXON (saxon) good basic rock 'n' roll. they're still touring, making albums... shaved version of motörhead

Dickinson says in the LAD video that Maiden isn't interested in selling pimple cream or jeans for a radio channel...

... well, I guess boxers and figures don't count. Especially when the money goes to the band, not a radio station.

80s REIGNING TYRANTS:
8.IRON MAIDEN (beast, piece, power, after, time) way overrated, but still brilliant! #2
9.LOUDNESS (devil soldier, law of devil, disillusion, thunder) japanese answer to metal, technically flawless
10.MEGADETH (killing, peace, rust,  wembley 90, count, cow 92) technical but melodic and ballsy
11.SLAYER (reign in blood, seasons, decade, divine) murder
12.MORBID ANGEL (altars, blessed, formulas) mind-bending and yet brutal, the heaviest stuff I'm into

80s middlemen (and one woman):
MOTÖRHEAD (no sleep, orgas) the original murder
GILLAN (glory, future) better than Purple for me... heavier, faster, even sillier lyrics:D
OZZY (blizzard, diary, even bark & sin) this should be probably among the tyrants actually...
KATE BUSH (never, dreaming) no, not heavy. but genuine pop music with experimentation and inspiration
DEAD KENNEDYS (fresh fruit, in god-ep, plastic surgery) Jello for president!!! This hc punk is pure chaos
ACCEPT (breaker, restless) what can I say... Udo... Udo's voice... well, you got to check it out for yourself
DIO (diver, last) not a big fan of the dragons or Leppard's Campbell, but the riffs still get me...
MERCYFUL FATE (nuns-ep, melissa, oath) best thing ever to emerge from Denmark, not Lars in Legoland
KING DIAMOND (conspiracy) a bit theatrical, but the humour, the complexity of "At The Graves"...MAN!
KREATOR (pleasure, extreme, kapitulation-live) tight, brutal, yet angrily melancholic german thrash
VOIVOD (dimension hatröss, nothingface, angel rat) weird, apocalyptical, always recognisable 
BELIEVER (extraction from mortality) the only white metal band worth more than fly's shit
DAVID LEE ROTH (eat em, skyscraper) Steve Vai... and do i sense little hints of self-irony in Roth's lyrics?
METALLICA (kill, ride, master) wayyyyyyyyy overrated... but Cliff was great and the early albums kick ass

This sums it up

90s METAL:
HALFORD (resurrection*, crucible*, insurrection* the new versions) outdid anything JP has done since 90..
DICKINSON (chemical, scream) outdid anything Maiden has done after 86..
PESTILENCE (spheres) yep, I know it's an odd choice but I've never heard anything like this
PANTERA (cowboys, vulgar) O-V-E-R-R-A-T-E-D! but who cares... amazing riffs and solos.

ANNIHILATOR (live 90-91) Jeff Waters was talented, but never seemed to make that stand-out album.
THE HAUNTED (the haunted) their first release before all the nonsense began... kick in the balls!
SKUNK ANANSIE (sunburnt) Skin is a rarity: opera, pop AND punk rock! Angry, vicious, direct.
SYSTEM OF A DOWN (toxicity, hypnotise) ATTAAAAACCCCKKKK!!! stupid and genious at once
VAN HALEN (different kind) surprisingly fresh sounding... but they are old demos from the mid-70s or early 80s re-played, and in the meantime, the quality of music HAS gone down a bit...

...aaaaand I guess I probably forgot something else too... but yep, that's pretty much the list of my favourite bands AND albums... and as for now, I'm sticking to it!

Oh yeah... and to understand how deeply f*cked up I am, I never once had to check a band's name or album when I was writing this list. Way too much sparetime...

"All play and no work makes Jack a dull boy All play and no work makes Jack a dull boy All play and no work makes Jack a dull boy All play and no work makes Jack a dull boy All play and no work makes Jack a dull boy All play and no work makes Jack a dull boy All play and no work makes Jack a dull boy All play and no work makes Jack a dull boy All play and no work makes Jack a dull boy All play and no work makes Jack a dull boy All play and no work makes Jack a dull boy All play and no work makes Jack a dull boy All play and no work makes Jack a dull boy All play and no work makes Jack a dull boy All play.." >:D

Boxes of Metal part deux

More mayhem and violence.

PRIEST! x2

Single Cuts is okay, but offers very few really important and interesting tracks from my personal favourite period, the 70s (Sad Wings, Sin after Sin, Stained Class, Killing Machine and Unleashed in the East). There are some live versions like White Heat Red Hot, Beyond the Realms of Death and Starbreaker from Cleveland '78 (though Starbreaker (live '79) is already included in Unleashed). Also, this is to my knowledge the only official cd release of Evil Fantasies (live '79), so a handful of gems, but little else. Still, it didn't cost that much and some of the cover art looks cool (British Steal period and A Touch of Evil, especially). For a Priest fanboy like me, a must, but for normal, sane people this doesn't make much sense. 70/100


Complete Albums... Well, as the title suggests, it includes the complete official albums released by Priest... except for those (in my opinion) horrible "Ripper" Owens albums Jugulator and Metal Machine or whatever that abomination was called. Don't get me wrong, "Ripper" is a great singer and could replicate Halford's scream with amazing accuracy. I simply dislike the songs - mind you, I also hate Turbo! and Point of Entry. Rocka Rolla wasn't that special either, nor the "comeback albums", Angel of Retribution and NostraDULLmus.
But consider this... All my 70s favourite albums are there - well, Sad Wings has a different track order which I'm not used to and to be honest don't like us much. Yep, I know Prelude and Tyrant were supposed to start the album - that's fine, as Tyrant is my all-time favourite track by any band. But somehow the silly Island of Domination suits better at finishing the album (compare it to tracks like Evil Fantasies or Love You to Death) than the superb and mesmerising Dreamer Deceiver-doublepiece.

And consider this too... All my 80s favourite albums are there - well, British Steel is overrated I think, but tracks like Rapid Fire, Metal Gods, even Grinder are good stuff. Vengeance and Defenders are hair metal done right. And, to top it off, we have the 90's Painkiller, which comes surprisingly close to their 70's albums and is, in fact, the most coherent work of metal they ever made. So, once again, a bit too extensive for a casual listener, who should pick up their isolate albums first, especially as all the bonus tracks are the same as on the remastered editions(Rocka Rolla and Sad Wings don't include any, neither do the 00's albums). So, no rarities, but overall nice box and complete enough. 80/100

Boxes of Metal part 1

Long time, no see... or even an ocean for that matter.

Well, lots of shit has been resently stacked in my shelves so probably we should have a looksy.

Black Sabbath Under Wheels of Confusion (4 cds) is most aptly called an expanded, chronological "best of" collection with no rarities. A nice booklet and poster, but all in all pretty redundant stuff - and a semi-official box, so probably the band is not too thrilled that this exists. Starts from 1970, but ends weirdly in 1987 (and even though I consider Eternal Idol to be a good album, still a weird year to stop as I gather this box was compiled in the 1990s). Good band though and lots of great tracks. So... I'll go with 40/100.




Ozzy Osbourne's Prince of Darkness (4 cds) doesn't rate much higher I'm afraid. First two discs are, yet again, a chronological "best of" collection. Lotsa live stuff, three interesting tracks from Ultimate Sin tour I haven't seen on any official cd before.The cover songs on cd 4 are unnecessary, I did however enjoy Ozzy's take on the Beatles' In My Life and I got to know Arthur Brown's Fire from this box, so not a complete failure. The "With Friends" section offered a couple of laughs with Miss Piggy (!) and Dweezil Zappa (!!), otherwise very little to write about. All in all, I guess 45/100.



Uriah Heep's Chapter & Verse (6 cds) I haven't listened yet enough to form an independent opinion. The pre-Heep day stuff for me was completely new, but by no means bad. Some 80s and 90s stuff I wasn't that interested in. Disc 6 could have been a complete gig rather than piled from here and there, but all in all not a bad effort - it seems that the band and/or fans actually had their say and several musically interesting choices have been made. Heep were the working horse of 70s rock and Mick Box seems very down-to-earth and direct in his opinions, yet very likeable. The box set is a bit too huge, perhaps if they had concentrated only in the 70s and cut the number of discs to 3 studios plus one live... It could have benefited from that. Also the packaging looks, to my eyes, too bland and boring - what's up with the pieces of wood? However, no huge let-downs in the song material and an enormous quantity of quality stuff, so... I'll go with 75/100.

Thin Lizzy's Vagabonds Kings Warriors & Angels (4 cds, Earbook version) was a much more focused attempt and at the time it was released, offered not only a decent overall view on Lynott's projects, but also quite a few relatively rare b-sides and live versions (Just the two of us, Don't Play Around, Sugar Blues, Night in the Life of a Blues Singer to name a few). Unfortunately after its release, the new 2-disc versions of the studioalbums offer all(?) of these rarities and much more... So, a bit redundant, but heaven-sent in its time. Ear book version was cheap (15-20 euros) and the picture looks great, good pictures, an overlong essay but well bound. Definitely a good one, even if it slips once again on the "best of" side. I'd give it 70/100.

Kiss Box Set (5 cds, regular edition) is exactly what you would expect from Kiss. The early days heavily emphasised, lotsa beautiful, glorious pictures and marvellously packed cds in jewels... Too bad the book's binding is miserably and pages start falling out no matter how careful I try to be. But I guess they have to sell the deluxe version (guitar case) with some argument - the songs are anyway the same. Previously unreleased, great demos, a couple of rare live tracks and so forth. The first disc is great, from there on it's a steady decline. As an ex-fanboy of Kiss I still have to give this 70/100 for visuality and fulfilment of a few childhood dreams.