Comp Swap VII: The Reviews

You're welcome, Olafsto. Glad you enjoyed the compilation!

Okay...I have tried 3 different times to posyt my lengthy review of Kmorgs 2 cds he's sent me...and all times the post was lost due to the site disappearing and tossing me that dumb maintenance screen. I will write another,but in the mean time, kmorg...I loved the discs...great stuff all around...if I hada any qualms at all it would be that disc one sounds like the same artist alot of the time....ie alot of the melodic metal sounds the same....but I dug it...great driving soundtrack!!!

I'll rewrite my long review and then maybe you can review the 2nd disc I sent you

Shiney wrote:

Okay...I have tried 3 different times to posyt my lengthy review of Kmorgs 2 cds he's sent me...and all times the post was lost due to the site disappearing and tossing me that dumb maintenance screen. I will write another,but in the mean time, kmorg...I loved the discs...great stuff all around...if I hada any qualms at all it would be that disc one sounds like the same artist alot of the time....ie alot of the melodic metal sounds the same....but I dug it...great driving soundtrack!!!

I'll rewrite my long review and then maybe you can review the 2nd disc I sent you

Write the review in Word or something similar, then paste the thing here. Then it wont get lost if the maintanance garbage happens again.

Yeah, you'll see mine when I see yours!

I can totally see that most of that melodic stuff sounds the same. Heck, I think 50% of those are from the same compilation CD

Disc I:

1.) "Conversation prelude"-ARTCH [A short instrumental lead in thingy]

2.) 'Still In Love"- STAGE DOLLS [I was already familiar with the hard rock outfit..meldoic and sort of poppy but good stuff!]

3.) "Movin'"- DREAM POLICE [nice groovin' melodic metal]

4.) "Can You Forgive Me?"- RETURN [typical European melodic metal...good stuff but nothing exceptional]

5.) "Cowgirl"- SONS OF ANGELS [ I bought this album when it came out in 1990...nice hair metal]

6.) "Broken heart"- EVENRUDE [more melodic metal here...pretty good kinda sounds like the other bands]

7.) Drums of War"- TINDRUM [Great female fronted metal here...sort of a slight sleaziness but mainly jusy hard rock/metal]

8.) United In A Scream"- RETURN [A heavier tune by this band...cool!]

9.) "Hard To Say Goodbye"- STAGE DOLLS [mellow melodic rock]

10.) ""Titanic"- ARTCH [I am familiar with this powery metal band...have a few of their cds.]

11.) Could It Be Love"- SONS OF ANGELS [Knew this tune]

12.) "Road Of the Cross"- JORN [Heavy rifftastic power metal]

13.) "I Was made For Rock & Roll"-TINDRUM [another tune by this great band...I have added them to my want list]

14.) "Forever In My Heart"- DAVINCI [Have a cd by these guys...almost AOR but decent hard rock]

15.) "Where I Go"- ARTCH [I know of these guys..great band]

16.) "Bullet From A Gun"-CARNIVORA [this band startled me when it came out the speakers...a little heavier than the other stuff on this disc...good!!]

17.) "Forever Yours"-JORN [ More melodic metal]

18.) "In My Dreams" WIG WAM [These guys I know of and like...this tuen is great!!]

19.) "Missing The Walrus"- CLOCKWISE [Interesting tune...I dig it]

synopsis: This disc is a good driving cd, however for the most part all the songs are of a seriously similar style and tend to sound alike...TINDRUM is by far my favorite artist on this disc.



Disc II:

1.) "Stop"- EQUINOX [very nice drumtastic thrash...awesome!!]

2.) "Strange To Numbers"- SCARIOT [this band is a little too deathly for me...good but not my thing]

3.) "Here Comes The pain"- GRIFFIN [Nice stuff here...almost PRIESTy]

4.) "Goliath"- WILD WILLY'S GANG [Great galloping traditonal metal...from a band with a dopey name]

5.) "new Lament"-BATTERED [Killer thrashy metal. The drumming is just awesome!!!]

6.) "Enola Gay"- WITCHHAMMER [Great band I have never heard before..sounded like early Kill 'Em All era METALLICA...]

7.) "Lidless Eye"- THUNDERBOLT [Another good band I know not..heavy almost thrashy with a dash of power metal]

8.) "History Reversed"- COMMUNIC [I know this band...killer!]

9.) "Resurrection"- ARK [For some weird reason this sounded like TRIUMPH to me, albeit heavier...not a bad thing]

10.) "Gethsemane"- CONCEPTION [This was progmetal...eh.]

11.) "Gunnin' For Glory"- TRIOSPHERE [Another cool band I never heard of...technical a little but heavy...Sweet!]

12.) "Devil May Care"- SUSPIRIA [great progressive metal by a band named after one of my favorite movies]

13.) "Edge of Time"-HIGHLAND GLORY [Nice galloping riffs and screaming powerish vocals...good sounding stuff!]

14.) "Alive"- CIRCUS MAXIMUS [This is the kind of wankery prog that I can't get into much...Not a bad tune, but I know I couldn't take an album worth]

15.) "Dreamscape lucidity"- PAGAN'S MIND [Nice power metal with progressive shadings. The guitars are nice but nothign really standapart from it]

16.) "Epilogue:Alene"- INVAIN [A nice closing tune...]

Synopsis: I liked this disc a bit more than the first...alot heavier...Again though, most of these bands mined similar territory and therefore lost their identity as I listened to the cds blindly in the car.. Still a few bands wormed their way into my ever growing want list so that is a good sign.

thanks so much, Kmorg!!!!

Glad you enjoyed them, Shiney! I'm surprised you knew about DaVinci! That is one obscure band, although I think Frontiers reissued their debut a short while ago.

I can totally see why the songs might be a tad samey, and I knew that it was a risk when I decided to go (almost) exclusive Norwegian bands for you.

So i'll have my write-up for the second CD from you asap.

Thats all I gotta say.....

Phoenix Reign Drummer wrote:

Thats all I gotta say.....

Alright Wayne and Ben, long awaited reviews are here. Sorry it took forever, I was writing the review for Bens first comp and lost it all when I went to post...needless to say falling into a depression and not wanting to have anything to do with compilations for awhile. I will do all three of Waynes first then Bens because I'm still butt-hurt kinda about having to redo my badass review for Ben....anyways Wayne I'm going send four comps instead of two and Ben I'll pm you your comps tonight most likely.

Wayne's first comp

1.MORGANA LEFAY "delusions"-First song starts with a weird digital effect then some crunchy guitar stuff bringing you to a kind of annoying chorus, despite the chorus, the vocalist is way rad....clean but really "throaty" at times too. An alright song. Always seen this band around record stores and stuff, just never checked em out. Now I know...they aint bad.

2.JAG PANZER "battlezones"-US power metal sound, love that. Radical leads midway thru the song, Jag panzer was another band I heard of before, but never took the time to listen to for whatever reason....I think I thought they were a glam band before or something..haha. Lots of "oooohh....ohhhhh....whaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!" type vocals, I love that scream BATTLEZONESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

3.RAGE "dont fear the winter"-wow, what a cool song! I like the speedy riffing at the beginning at the ultra catchy chorus.

4.MOB RULES "coast to coast"-starts pretty mellow with some ambient noises laced subtley in. I do not like this vocalist really, but the lyrics are good. Towards the end of the song a funky keyboard solo comes in which I thought was a cool addition. Rad black sabbath worship with the name too.

5.TYRAN PACE "Highway knights"- LOVE THIS TRACK!!!!, quite possibly my fave off the comp, a song about cruising badass's! Awesome riffs, and vocals +lyrics....total NWOBHM sound. Tyran pace is brilliant band from that type of sound.

6.NOSTRADAMEUS "the vision"-hmmm...vocalist sounds familiar to me, for a euro power band the mid ranged vocals are kind of a nice change. Besides that, not much else stood out to me. Not a bad song though.

7.SAGA "step inside"-This band rules, I had no idea. The keys during the verses sound like an oriental scale. Awesome vocalist and catchy choruses. ragin' guitarwork...both rhythms and solos. This song makes me want to pick up their stuff, Saga kind of reminds me of Shadow gallery, another cool progressive band that will make you a better person if you listen to their music.

8.PLACEVENDOME "streets of fire"-good keys playing, and I like these vocals. They sound good with the keyboards for some reason. Catchy chorus....STREEEEEETS OF FIIIIIIYA!!!

9.MASTERPLAN "warriors cry"- Yet another euro power metal band, I hate to refer to masterplan this way because I know they are better than this, but the guitarwork sounds kinda like an ultra speedy dragonforce riff that lacks substance at the beginning of the song. I like the riffs once the verses come in though, sounds like a symphony X song.

10.RAWHEAD REXX "mr. hyde"-When I was looking at the songs on the comp before I listened to any of the songs, I knew a band named after one of the raddest horror films of all time they had to be awesome..well, turns out that assumption was correct. I like this song alright, cool guitar riffs and the drummer is pretty talented as well.

I'll finish up the rest of this comp either later tonight, or tommorow morning after my classes....Good comp so far man, but I have to say a little on the flowery side...haha.

lol I just wrote this whole thing in reply to what you wrote and every once in a while my finger will hit something on my lap top to make me loose everything that I just wrote hahaha. I'll just sum it up

Morgana Lefay- That song is from their last album. Its their least produced sounding album. I think youd enjoy some of their older stuff. Also check out LEFAY its the same band but they had some legal troubles with the name for a while. just don't bother listening to Morgana Lefay S/T its not even the same band. Its a long story haha

Jag Panzer- This is from their first album. I put this on here cause a friend of mine gave me a copy of Metallica No Life Til Leather. At the end of my cassette there was this song that I had no Idea who it was. I just knew it was some sort of song with the chorus Battlezones. fast forward to 12 years later I finally hear the full song and I didnt even realize it at first til he got to the high pitched chorus and I was surprised that I would turn out to like that band all those years later.

Rage- Great band. Not really a bad album their whole career. A lot of style changes but still they are great!

Mob Rules- In a way they are sort of a weak band but I really like them a lot. It took me a while to get used to them but I compare them to Hammerfall when they first started out. I didn't really care for their vocalist and I thought their music was weak as well but they grew on me.

Tyran Pace- Ralf Sheepers first band before he joined Gamma Ray.

Nostradameus- I always thought their vocalist sounded like the old vocalist from Nocturnal Rites. I thought it was his new band or something after he left but its not. Either way I like them. They have a new album coming out.

Saga- The album Human Condition which is what album this song is from is a really great album and im going to say its probably my favorite album of theirs. You have to be careful with this band though and sample some of their older stuff because what you hear with this song or even the new album doesn't reflect a huge portion of their older material at all. They are a good band though. The older stuff is very 80's keyboard oriented.

Placevendome- That is the GREAT Michael Kiske on vocals. Also featuring some Pink Cream 69 members. They are a AOR band pretty much. I liked the new album a lot which is what album this song is from but don't expect anything heavier than this song.

Masterplan- Their first album is probably one of my all time favorites of any band. This song is from their 3rd album which I had mix feelings about but I think this is one of my favorite songs of theirs. Very fast just the way I like it. The guitars though are a little less flashy than I would have hoped for. Roland Grapow is a great guitarist but he hasn't wowed me really since he did a solo album.

Rawhead Rexx- Only heard about this band since this is where the new Helloween drummer came from. I believe when he left the band this band pretty much broke up. They haven't put anything out since.

Oh and don't worry you'll get used to the flowers over time.

Wow, that sounded like a killer comp, Wayne!

thats only 1 disc

Phoenix Reign Drummer wrote:

thats only 1 disc

haha...yeah 2 and a half more to go!

bgast1 wrote:

4. Arena -- Cutting the Cards - I don't don't know this band, but when it comes to progressive rock, I am a big sucker. I'm not sure which album this comes from but I think Live & Life. I certainly will be looking into adding Arena to my collection. 9/10

Hope you can get it at a good price. I was looking through Amazon to find more albums from Arena and some of them are a bit pricey. The album that song came from, Contagion, is not too cheap:

http://www.amazon.com/Contagion-Arena/dp/B00007FZFK/ref=ntt_mus_ep_dpi_2

11.SKYCLAD "sins of ommission"-Real folky sounding track, lots of violin. Kind of annoying chorus, but a cool song in the end.

12.SQUEALER "Infanticide"-real cool track that has a lot of thrashy riffing and good vocals that sound a little processed sometimes but I like them. Rad spoken word section in the middle.

13.THORN OF CHAOS "no nothing"-European power metal sound, Some of the guitarwork is in an eastern sounding scale, particulary at the beginning...dont know what it is about em', but I love that eastern sound. Good drum sound also.

14. THORN OF CHAOS "wait"-Another track by the previous band, a little more commerical sounding on this one. On both tracks, something that cant not be noticed is how solid the drumming is, the drums are not spectacular but they are very upfront and although they are somewhat simple you can tell there is a good player behind them.

15. 69 EYES-"ghettoway car"-haha...funny track title! I had a friend in highschool that really liked this band but I never really took a hard listen of them. The music sounds like that dirty hard rock/heavy metal riff based metal. I like this song! Cool vocalist with a bit of attitude.

16. LAKE OF TEARS-"waiting counting"-I have heard this band before, real awesome cover art most of the time...usually centered around swans...anyway, the music is spacey that sounds kind of gothic sometimes. Cool stuff for an alternative to what I usually listen to, but I dont think I could stand it all the time. Good track.

17. X WORLDS "cybercrist"-real heavy industrial sounding guitars with some high pitched power metal type vocals.

18. ????-Wayne you must have forgot to write the band and song title down, the name wasnt on the case. No problems, cool riffs in this song and good vocals that sound similar to Rob Rock.



Good comp wayne, I will give an overview of all the comps when I am done with all three...1 down 2 to go!

hmmm.. i forgot to write the last song down? any idea what the chorus is or anything?

CD 2 from Shiney:

1. Townes Van Zandt - "Lungs" - Laid back, semi-acoustic folk/country. A fantastic tune!

2. Terrorvision - "Alice, What's The Matter?" - Neo-punk infused sleaze. Pretty good tune.

3. Mr. Nasty - "Rock N Roll Man" - Straight up sleaze, but they still remind me of Aerosmith. A party tune, but an entire album of this, and I'd gone crazy.

4. New York Dolls - "Subway Train" - Legendary bnd that I have never devoted much time on. I'd love to hear them when Blackie was still in the band. This song I was sort of familiar with, and it makes me understand why this band is so legendary.

5. Protest The Hero - "Goddess Bound" - OOOO, METAL! Very progressive, yet sort of uninventive. Let's see if we can crank in every metal style we kow of into one tune. It's brilliant and lost on me at the same time. Sort of like Coheed and Cambria on meth....

6. The Remains - "Too Much" - Never heard of this band, so I googled them. Turn out thwy are sort of the "lost American rock band" of the 60's. They must have been very "nasty" and "dirty" back in the 60's. Even giving The Rolling Stones, The Who and The Kinks some serious run for the money. Nice.

7. Rusty Eye - "Mondo Cane" - Pseudo-metal, prog, funk, death, goth, punk wankery!! This is even more out there than Protest The Hero. Imagine if The Lead and Strapping Young Lad teamed up! The more I listen to this song, the more I like it.

8. Satanicide - "My Heart Will Go On" - This is easily the funniest name in a while, and the hard rock version of a Celine Dion cover provided is a hoot too! Def. worthy of a big grin.

9. The Snakehandlers - "People Who Died" - Guess what genre this band represents? Yup, more country! But forget the slick all-american stuff. This is underground country rock, with funny lyrics, and a band that is in it for the fun. Is this a cover tune too?

10. Gypsy Pistoleros - "Livin' La Vida Loca" - I should be ashamed to know that this is a Ricky Martin cover. Yup, this is fun for a laugh, but nothing I'd ever wanna hear again.

11. The Drones - "Shark Fin Blues" - This song was once voted as the best Australian song, and I can totally see why! Absolutely the best song on this compilation! A fantasticly sloppy rock tune, with gritty, accentuated and heartfelt vocals, that just weaves it's way under your skin, and does not let you go! I never thought I'd like this kind of music, but "Shark Fin Blues" really got me hooked!

12. Dead River Drag - "Scarlet" - Another fine rock tune, with punk influences. But it sort of drown after the fantastic last tune.

13. Dangerous Toys - "Queen Of The Nile" - Ultmetal loves these girl... eh, guys, right? Hair metal, with helium vocals. Reminds me of a dirtier Cinderella, perhaps? A genre typical song that works well.

14. Coheed And Cambria - "Welcome Home" - Used to own one of their album, and used to take turns in loving it and/or hating it. Amazing band, but I can never make up my mind! This song is excellent though.

15. Graveyard - "Blue Soul" - Retro-rock from Sweden. This is actually proto-metal, recorded in 2007! For fans of Wolfmother and Witchcraft....

Another fine CD, Shiney. Definitely made me consider my worldview of music

THE REMAINS is not the same band that turned up on your google...this was an unsigned metal band from the late 80's...

THE SNAKEHANDLERS tune is a cover of the late JIM CARROL...and this band features KIX guitarist Brian Forsythe...

RUSTY EYE are a fantastic band...their new cd is killer...Im friends witht heir drummer and hope to have a short interview with them in ST issue #2...Highly worth checking out further...

PROTEST THE HERO is amazing in that all band members were under the age of 19 on that recording...insane!!!

Glad you dug it, kmorg...I always set out to enlighten....and expand ones musical horizons...

You really have no history with Dangerous Toys, K? That is easily one the the true great bands of our time!! If you did not know, Jason McMaster was in Watchtower and is now in Broken Teeth. Other than King's X, my favorite Texas band of all time. You should get all of their stuff [avoid "The Artist Formerly Known As Dangerous Toys" though. That was basically their KFD.].

UNCLE SAXON wrote:

You really have no history with Dangerous Toys, K? That is easily one the the true great bands of our time!! If you did not know, Jason McMaster was in Watchtower and is now in Broken Teeth. Other than King's X, my favorite Texas band of all time. You should get all of their stuff [avoid "The Artist Formerly Known As Dangerous Toys" though. That was basically their KFD.].

I always wrote them off as just another sleaze/hair metal band. I might check them out further now, if they show up for cheap anywhere...

Disc 2 part 1 Waynes comp

1. ABRAXAS "gates to eden"--sounds like european power metal to me with some speed influence. The vocalist imediately reminded me of a cross between Tobias sammet and the helloween vocalist which name is escaping my brain at the moment. Anyway pretty cool song, some of the leads have like a carnival vibe to them.

2. STEEL PROPHET "Goddess arise"--Steel prophet I have heard of before and have been on my wantlist for quite a while, but I just havent got around to picking anything up by them. I have heard their real early stuff is better than their other albums, I dont know where this song fits in on the bands timeline. Cool song, but the vocals kind of get on my nerves after a while.

3. DUKE "the duke"--power/speed sound, dig the fast riffing at the beginning. Great guitarwork.

4. ALMAH "beyond tomorow"--the keys and opera chanting were a little much for me..haha but cool song anyways.

5.ANVIL "no evil"--Anvil!! Yes!! I love how the vocals were so sh!tty for this band but still completely hardcore. As goofy as the chorus is I find it really catchy..haha. Great song.

6.AVERSION "vodka frenzy"--Funny song title!! straight thrash metal...my favorate metal. Never heard this band before, I'm definately going to look into em more.

7.GWAR "Damnation under God"--Never was a huge Gwar fan, this song is okay.

8.CAGE "black river falls"--US power metal to the max, right from the beginning this track is raging. This band has the higher traditional power vocals but also implements some well placed growly stuff. killer guitarwork.

part 2....If your not familiar with some of these band names just assume it power metal, because it probably is. I found this out on the last disc..haha.

9. BEYOND TWILIGHT "the path of darkness"--I like the keys, the vocalist was about as annoying as the steel prophet vocalist though.

10. DARK MOOR "on the hills of dreams"--guitar leads are pretty amazing on this, I dig the part with the bells and that chuggy guitar riff. Rad sounding contrast.

11. MANOWAR "let the Gods decide"--loin cloth wrapped manowar is alway great, this song reminded me of the scene in mad max 3 when 2 MEN ENTER, ONE LEAVES. Killer metal as expected of manowar.

12. BRAINSTORM "lost unseen"--chugging track, if brainstorm sounds like this all the time, I wouldnt have a problem listening every once in awhile.

13. HARDCORE SUPERSTAR "into sweet debauchery"--never knew what this band was about before hearing this track. I thought they were like some glam band or something based off their name. dig the little scream at the end, thought it was a cat at first..haha.

14. CHUCK MOSELY "tractor"--dont really know how to describe this, kinda spacey and alternative sounding. I dig it.

15.CHUCK MOSELY "we care alot"--Another track by Chuck Mosely, pretty funny lyrics, musically the same pretty much as the previous song. Cool band I'll look into them in the future.

16.SAXON "terminal velocity"--hell yeah!! Saxon!!! I'm still missing quite a bit of the albums, but this song rules.


Disc two down one more to go, so far I like the first disc the best. This one got better towards the end though wayne.

Quote :

HARDCORE SUPERSTAR "into sweet debauchery"--never knew what this band was about before hearing this track. I thought they were like some glam band or something based off their name. dig the little scream at the end, thought it was a cat at first..haha.

Depending on your definition of glam, they could fit that genre. I'm a HS fanboy (I have them all) and categorize them as a metal/punk/glam hybrid. The earlier stuff is more punk sounding and the later stuff has a metallic edge to it. They are NOT the hair metal style of glam however, they're the sleaze form of glam.

Take it from the VP of Sleaze!!

Shiney wrote:

Take it from the VP of Sleaze!!

tohostudios wrote:

Quote :

HARDCORE SUPERSTAR "into sweet debauchery"--never knew what this band was about before hearing this track. I thought they were like some glam band or something based off their name. dig the little scream at the end, thought it was a cat at first..haha.

Depending on your definition of glam, they could fit that genre. I'm a HS fanboy (I have them all) and categorize them as a metal/punk/glam hybrid. The earlier stuff is more punk sounding and the later stuff has a metallic edge to it. They are NOT the hair metal style of glam however, they're the sleaze form of glam.

Ah okay, that makes sense because I was thinking the glam defination like Dokken or cinderella or something...haha.

Wow, someone here actually owns the Abraxas CD! I was starting to think I was the only one in the universe!