Metal Mail: Landmine Marathon Cassette Box Set

For a short period of time a few years back, Landmine Marathon was the subject of a ton of hype.  Most of it was due to Revolver Magazine slobbering all over themselves at the thought of a pretty girl fronting a death/grind band.  Actually, that was damn near all of it.  Unfortunately, Landmine Marathon was much better known for Grace Perry than for their sound, which is kind of a shame.  I actually really enjoyed the band and picked up their first two full-length albums on CD when they were fairly new.  They were also featured in my Honorable Mentions post for my Favorite New Bands of the 2000's. 

I sort of drifted away from the band after their second album.  I did not even know they released anything else, much less two other albums before Perry left the band.  I do not really know why that happened, but Landmine Marathon attempted to move forward, replacing Perry with Krysta Curry.  Technically the band is still active but has not released anything since the switch in singers.  I am curious as to what Perry is up to these days.  It does not appear she stayed in metal.

This is not a complete box set collection, it only contains the second, third, and fourth albums out of the band's five total albums.  That is okay because these are the better albums from the band and contain two of the releases of which I am most familiar.  Landmine Marathon's sound is based mostly in the sounds of early death/grind bands like Bolt Thrower, Carcass, and Napalm Death.  Grace Perry is the star of the band on these releases, with her impressive full-throated roar, through she is not the band's driving force.

This could be a better box set if it included everything from the band.  It is nice to get a few of the albums together, but there are two albums missing.  And those are the harder ones to find.  So, not a bad set, but not as good as it could be.

Metal Mail: Rare Finds

I picked up both of these albums from a seller in Canada off of Discogs.  I'm not sure how I ended up with two underrated U.K. albums from the same seller in Canada, but whatever.

ONSLAUGHT: THE FORCE (1986)
This is actually my third Onslaught album, and thus far the best one I have heard.  I do not know nearly as much as I should about this amazing U.K.-based thrash metal band.  My first experience with the band was 2013's VI, which was a very good modern thrash metal album.  After that, I picked up the Steve Grimmett-led In Search of Sanity, which is apparently not terribly representative of the band's typical sound.  So I tried this one, and holy fuck I am glad I did.  You see, I am a big fan of Slayer, but my absolute favorite album by them is Show No Mercy which was their debut album and was more of a NWOBHM-influenced album than the brutal brand of thrash metal that most people know of their sound.  This album by Onslaught is very similar to Show No Mercy.  It is pure Venom-worshipping thrash metal with some absolutely incredible songs.  This is not only my favorite album by Onslaught, it might be up there with Sabbat's Dreamweaver as my favorite U.K. thrash metal album.

SKYCLAD: THE WAYWARD SONS OF MOTHER EARTH (1991)
Speaking of Sabbat, Skyclad is frontman Martin Walkyier's band after leaving the great, underrated thrash metal band.  Skyclad was one of the pioneering bands in folk metal, fusing Irish melodies and instrumentation into thrashy, Iron Maiden-esque riffs.  Of course the highlight of the album is Walkyier's staccato barking vocals.  Walkyier has one of the great vocal styles in thrash metal and it is on full display throughout this album.  As much as I love Walkyier's work, for some reason I have just not gone through much of his stuff.  I have just one Sabbat album, which I absolutely love, and now two Skyclad albums, both of which I really enjoy as well.  Well, that will likely become one of my goals.  There is really only one other Sabbat album, which will likely be the next one I check out, but there is quite a bit of Skyclad material.

Metal Mail: Rapid Fire Records

RUNNING WILD: DEATH OR GLORY (1989)
For some reason, I only recently decided to check out Running Wild.  The German power/speed metal band has been around for 40 years, yet I never took the plunge.  It was only a few months ago that I added Blazon Stone to my collection and loved it.  So I picked up this release which was the album that immediately preceded Blazon Stone and I love it even more.  Running Wild, along with Blind Guardian and Helloween, really helped usher in the European style of power metal.  This album is filled with terrific, pulse-pounding burners with infectious hooks and choruses. The middle tracks drag just a little bit, particularly with the instrumental "Highland Glory" and its oddly bouncy bass riff, but it picks right back up on "Marooned".  I was a little concerned when I saw the tile "Bad to the Bone" that Running Wild might be attempting an ill-advised cover, but this song is an original and quite catchy.  After two positive experiences, I will be checking out additional material by Running Wild.  There is a lot of stuff to go through yet.

NUCLEAR ASSAULT: GAME OVER (1986)
Nuclear Assault is the band that really got me into crossover.  I had heard groups like Suicidal Tendencies and Prong, and even the Corrosion of Conformity stuff that was more crossover-oriented, but it was when I checked out "Critical Mass" again that I was really sold on the genre.  I loved the album that that song appeared on Handle with Care as well.  So, when I had an opportunity to add their debut album to my collection, I jumped on it.  I do not like this one quite as much as the aforementioned album though.  The band had not fully grown into their sound on this release.  It is more of a straight thrash metal album than the later release.  There are a lot of great songs on this album, but some of the tracks are clearly done to be humorous and end up falling a little flat.  There is nothing inherently wrong with doing humor in metal, but it does not always work, and this is one of those occasions.  The more serious tracks are definitely the standouts and keep the album interesting. 

Metal Mail: Gruesome

GRUESOME: DIMENSIONS OF HORROR (2016)
First of all, I love this album cover.  Just some excellent Lovecraftian-style horror.  I have been somewhat familiar with Gruesome for a little while.  The band was started by Matt Harvey (not the Mets pitcher, the guitarist for Exhumed, Dekapitator, and others) and some other longtime death metal musicians, as a way to pay tribute to Death.  The sound of the band is clearly based on the early works of the great death metal pioneers, particularly Scream Bloody Gore.  There is a breakdown in the title track that absolutely calls to mind one in Death's "Zombie Ritual".  Gruesome has only released one full-length album so far, which brings me to the only problem that I have with this release: it is just an EP.  Hopefully Gruesome will release a new full-length album soon.  In the meantime, this is some good stuff for anyone looking for something like the early Death albums.

Metal Mail: Random Tapes

These are just some random tapes that did not fit in with any real category.

FVRLVRN: DEMO 2016 (2016)
I am pretty sure that pronunciation is supposed to be "Forlorn", but I could be way off base.  This is an extremely quick and dirty demo from a band experimenting with combining black metal and grindcore, two styles that I am not sure get mixed together too often.  The band features two members of blackened slam (also two styles that do not get mixed often) outfit Hateful Transgression, a band whose demo tape I am still trying to find after originally ordering it from the label only to find that it was no longer active.  There are some interesting moments on this release, in particular the drum blast in opening track "Crawling Inside" that is so fast it sounds like a motor sputtering to life.  The black metal parts mostly come from the vocal style, which is often a rasping shriek rather than the more typical grindcore style.  There are some riffs here and there that are more black metal in nature as well.  Otherwise, it is more of a death/grind release.  Fvrlvrn deserves credit for trying something new.  I still prefer Hateful Transgression personally and will hopefully one day find that demo tape.  Fvrlvrn recently changed their name to Morgue Walker.

SEAX: SPEED METAL MANIA (2016)
Well, with a title like that, you pretty much know what to expect: balls-to-the-wall pure fucking metal, and that is what you get.  The Motorhead and Exciter covers hidden in the album cover art are some additional clues.  The combination of those two bands is a pretty decent way to describe the band's sound, definitely fast-paced with soaring vocals and sing-along choruses.  Seax has apparently been around for some time as this is the band's third full-length album.  There have been a lot of bands popping up in recent years playing this kind of retro heavy metal, so Seax has their work cut out for them if they want to break through.  They definitely have the chops though, as this album attests.

UNSPEAKABLE: EXPULSION OF THE TRIUMPHANT BEAST (2017)
I discovered Unspeakable through recommendations by various people on Facebook and Youtube.  The band is a black/death metal band in the vein of Archgoat, Black Witchery, and the like and from St. Louis.  This band is certainly raw and primitive-sounding, which I can definitely appreciate.  The songs are fast-paced and intense and sound like the kind of thing that would have been recorded in the mid-1980's.  Of particular note is "Fevered Dreams in the Witch House", not just for the face-melting riffs, but I dig the Lovecraft reference.  Final track "Unspeakable" caught me by surprise at first as I kept thinking this sounds a lot like very early black metal bands.  Sure enough, it is a cover of an NME song from their debut demo in 1985.  That makes sense.  I love this tape so much I ordered their previous release and will be keeping an eye out for a full-length, which is apparently coming soon.

Metal Mail: Tapehead City

I have been collecting all of my music on cassettes lately.  Not really sure why, I just decided that is the format I enjoy the best.  My wife thinks I am crazy.  She is probably correct.

ARMORED SAINT: RAISING FEAR (1987)
Despite how much I love Symbol of Salvation and John Bush's work with Anthrax, I never really checked out any more of Armored Saint's early work.  Part of this is likely due to not really enjoying the more recent output by the band.  Part of it may be due to simply lack of opportunity.  But after I saw them live in support of Queensryche a year or so ago, I decided I would take a chance on them again.  It seems odd now that I did not give their earlier work a chance because this album is terrific and is definitely closer to Symbol than their later material, which only makes sense because this album immediately preceded it.  Now, there are not any truly awesome songs like "Hanging Judge" or "Reign of Fire" on this one, but there are some damn good ones.  Ultimately, I will probably always prefer Symbol over this one, but this is definitely a good album, and much better than anything the band has been putting out in recent years.

BANSHEE: RACE AGAINST TIME (1989)
I have been on a 1980's metal kick lately.  I blame my wife.  It seems reasonable.  Anyway, I have been trying to find bands that were overlooked in the 1980's that definitely played metal.  I have been mostly using the Metal Archives as a source to look bands up when I come across them on sites like Tapehead City.  This album received some a very favorable review on that site, and it was cheap, so I took a flyer.  This album is definitely a product of its time.  It is a metal album, clearly there are metal riffs, but the band is more of a combination of U.S. power metal and the more popular styles of hard rock/heavy metal from the time period.  There are some damn catchy songs here, such as the title track, which absolutely would fit in on an album by Manowar or Helstar.  There are some other highlights as well.  This album would have been avoided based entirely on the super cheesy cover, but it is an example of why one should not judge an album just by its cover.

DREAD: RAVAGED (1996)
One of the things that I have really enjoyed since starting to really collect cassettes has been finding old demo tapes, particularly of bands that never made it.  And Tapehead City seems to have a number of obscure demos.  Demos from bands that are well-known are usually a bit pricey, so this is just fine.  I picked up this demo from a Massachusetts-based band based on the fact that they are listed as a thrash metal band on the Metal Archives and because it was pretty cheap.  Well, if they ever were a thrash metal band, they are not on this demo.  This is the last of five demos the band released in their short existence and it is very clear that the band was aiming for more of a Pantera/Machine Head/Exhorder style of groove metal.  It is not bad, but it is not really what I expected either, and I am not typically much of a groove metal fan.  It is interesting to note that one of the former band members from this group went on to play in Godless Rising and Goreality, two bands of whom I am familiar.

INTERNAL VOID: STANDING ON THE SUN (1993)
This was a little-known doom metal band that existed for a few years in the late 1980's/early 1990's.  They released this album, their debut, before going on hiatus for a few years, released albums in 2000 and 2004 before disbanding.  Recently, they have re-formed again.  This is the first time I have had a chance to check them out.  This is a very bluesy style of doom metal, calling to mind the early Black Sabbath albums.  The album is somewhat long and most of the songs are very slow, making it seem that much longer.  That is not really a problem, though it would be nice if there was a little bit more variety.  The better tracks are those that are faster-paced.  This is certainly an interesting album and would definitely appeal to the true doom metal fans out there.

LIZZY BORDEN: THE MURDERESS METAL ROAD SHOW (1986)
This is not actually what I ordered.  Usually I avoid live albums and I ordered one of the band's early studio albums.  But when it arrived, the J-card was correct, but the tape was this live release.  I gave it a shot anyway and I am damn glad I did.  I avoided Lizzy Borden for a long period of time due to assuming they were just another glam band.  Honestly, the band definitely looks ridiculous, however musically, they have more in common with early Iron Maiden than Poison.  This is 100% pure 1980's heavy metal with searing guitar solos, infectious riffs, and soaring vocals.  Yes, it is a live album, but the production is so good that the songs do not lose anything.  In an ongoing review of 1980's groups, Lizzy Borden stands along with W.A.S.P. as truly impressive metal bands in an ocean of forgettable glam bands.

Metal Mail: War on Metal

I recently placed an order on a small record label, mostly to check out the reissue of Summoning's debut.  Deciding not to get just one album, I also picked out a demo that I thought I would like.  

SUMMONING: LUGBURZ (1995)

I went about discovering Summoning in a weird order.  The Austrian black metal band has been around for a long time, forming in 1993, but I just decided to check them out this year.  I started with their newest release, 2018's With Doom We Come.  That review is coming soon, but it was not quite what I expected.  Nevertheless, I gave them another chance, picking up the reissue of their debut album here.  It is clear from this release that Summoning was still looking for their niche, this is a much more typical black metal release from this time period, but there are moments where the band's future sound shines through.  Certain songs lean heavily on atmospheric keyboard melodies, which became the band's calling card later on.  I definitely enjoyed this release a lot more than their new album, which I am still working on discovering.

VOMIT: DESECRATION (2017)

This is the first demo from a Chilean death metal trio.  South America tends to produce some filthy and raw old school metal and Vomit is no exception.  Taking their cues mainly from the very early death metal bands, Vomit is completely filthy.  I can definitely identify a strong influence from Possessed, particularly in second track "Vomiting Death" which has a riff clearly resembling Possessed's "The Exorcist".  But Vomit is definitely not a clone of older bands.  They do add their own twists onto things.  This is just the band's first demo and they did release a second one last year too, but I have not managed to find that one.  I will be keeping an eye on this band.  I have been a fan of South American extreme metal since first hearing Sepultura and the continent has not let me down yet.

Metal Mail: Pantera

What the fuck is that?!  

Yes, this is a Pantera album.  The band in the 1990's wanted everyone to think that their first album was Cowboys From Hell, but that is not true in the least.  That was actually their FIFTH album.  Pantera disavowed their first four albums and that is not terribly surprising given the large difference in sound and quality, but I would argue that this is a pretty damn good album.  In fact, it is not all that dissimilar from the aforementioned Cowboys.

This was the first album with the classic Pantera lineup as Phil Anselmo joined the band as singer.  His style at the time was less tough-guy hardcore and much more dynamic.  Anselmo can truly sing on this release among some truly impressive shrieking.  Seriously, he does one hell of a Rob Halford impression here.  

Another highlight to this album is the amazing guitar work of "Diamond" Darrell.  He would of course go by "Dimebag" later on, but he was "Diamond" here.  People have long claimed that he was one of the greatest metal guitarists of all time, but I was never totally impressed with the groove metal work, much preferring his work on Cowboys.  He has some of his greatest riffs on this album and some damn good solos as well.  

There are some less-than-stellar songs here, such as the regrettable "P.S.T. 88", but most of the songs are actually damn good.  "Proud to be Loud" is the kind of anthemic track that would have been at home on an early 80's Judas Priest album and the first half of the album is full of some of the best and catchiest songs of the band's career.  

If you are looking for something like Vulgar Display of Power, you are going to be disappointed with this album.  However, if you are like me and Cowboys is far and away your favorite Pantera album, you should at least give this album a shot.