COMP SWAP VIII - The reviews

That's what I really like about these comp swaps. Besides the recipients hopefully being exposed to a band they like but have never heard, when we start reviewing them, everybody gets exposed to new bands.

Yea its cool. Not that I need any more bands hahahaha but If I come across one that gets my attention its great. I know theres so much more stuff out there that I just either don't know of or never gave a chance.

I just noticed who's under that cowboy hat in your avatar PRD.

Herbert literally joined a posse, eh?

(That is Herbert Kornfeld, right?)

tohostudios wrote:

That's what I really like about these comp swaps. Besides the recipients hopefully being exposed to a band they like but have never heard, when we start reviewing them, everybody gets exposed to new bands.

I hear that. Just reading "Mr. Picky" PRD's reviews, he mentioned a band Grand Magus. Never heard of 'em, but checked out their myspace page. I like what I hear.

Grand Magus is awesome. They have a new album coming out this summer. Iron Will or Wolfs Return is a good place to start.

tohostudios wrote:

I just noticed who's under that cowboy hat in your avatar PRD.

Herbert literally joined a posse, eh?

(That is Herbert Kornfeld, right?)

Hahahahaha no actually it is my avatar from my xbox live account. After you said that though I can see where you would think that. I used to make him look like me but I got bored and came up with that haha.

That sure looks like the old Korndog as "the man with no eyes".

Phoenix Reign Drummer wrote:

I'll have to check that out and see. I did pick up some Dead Kennedys today though, that was on Jokers comps!

Nice!!! Which one did you pick up?

Phoenix Reign Drummer wrote:

12. Rob Rock- Slayer Of Souls: This is a little better. Getting back into the power metal stuff. Its a decent song. I always heard of Rob Rock just never the music. Its pretty good. I'd like to hear more.

What about those comps I sent to you all that time ago? I know I included at least one full CD of RR songs.

dood you got mine by this time right? And did you send yours..I'm moving in like 2 days..so..

As promised, here is my review of the comps sent me by OCI (BTW, you were right these were great):

CD1

Labyrinth-In The Shade (I've know about these guys for a while now but never picked up a CD despite liking the music. I really need to pick something up because this is good Europ-power metal -though I know the main guy behind this band hates that label. This song has an infectious chorus, really like the vocalist. Excellent keyboard and guitar solos.)

Labyrinth-Hand In Hand (This song is even better. The vocalist sounds even clearer and is accompainied by beautiful airy keyboards. Once again, great guitar and keyboard solos here.)

Rage-Sent By The Devil (I'm only familiar with Carved In Stone Rage but this song and the one after it makes me want to locate more. This particular song doesn't seem too much different from what I do know about them.)

Rage-Wash My Sins Away (This has to be the best and most melodic song I've heard from Rage. The vocalist has reduced a lot of the roughness normally in his voice and I like the result-very pleasant voice. My next Rage CD will definatly be Ghosts).

Dark-Gaia's Masterpiece (My favorite kind of gohic metal, dark, meldodic, and doomy with atmospheric keys-nohting symphonic though, something I don't listen to as often as in the past so that's a good thing. This is definatly my kind of music. The death vocals are not anything different from what you normally hear in this kind of music but works well. The female vocals are used sparingly here but they are nice and pleasant-though nothing unique.

Dark-My Desire (More of the same and me likey. This song picks up the pace a little but doesn't leave gothic mode. The male vocals start off clearer and are more rhaspy like Sentenced. The death vocals do show up but I have no problem with that. No female vocals here-I'm guessing the ones in the last song are not normal for this band.)

Freedom Call-Graceland (We go back to Euro-power metal, one of my favorite genres. I've heard quite a lot about these guys and I now know why. This is an example of a band that does this very well as opposed to all the mediocre copy cats. Infectious choruses and clean, clear vocals. I like the atmospheric keys that don't overpower the music.)

Freedom Call-Heart Of The Rainbow (anohter great song this time with even more atmosphere from the keys. This time there are some death vocals thrown into the mix.)

Darkseed-Ultimate Darkness (Back to gothic metal and once again it's the kind I like. Rough vocals that border on the melodic like Sentenced though a little more gruff but there are also dark low goth male vocals-like the kind I'd utilize-and a smithering of death vocals.

Darkseed-Cosmic Shining (This time it opens slow and pleasant with an awesome yet subdued guitar solo. Gets a bit heavier in parts but in a slow doomy gothic way and goes back to slow and mellow. This time the vocals remain clean throughout. Finishes out in the heavy, slow, and doomy gothic way accenuated with some beautiful female vocals.

Keldian-Lords Of Polaris (These guys are the stars of the this comp, absoulutly blown away by this band. Not sure I'd call this Euro-power metal but it is a more progressive version of it. Atmospheric and beautifully majestic. The vocalist has an amazingly crystal clear tenor not normally found in metal. This particular song contains awesome Gregorian chants that fits the music well.)

Keldian-Sundancer (This is where the vocals really shine, he really has a operatic tneor sound in the chorus. Once again atmospheric and majestic, I can't stop saying good things about this band.)

Stormwitch-Jonathan's Diary (This is some good classic sounding metal from the golden age of metal. Here is a strong NWOBHM influence-might they actually be from that scene? Not sure what else I can say, this is something I really need to add to my collection).

Stormwitch-Intro/Sword Of Sagon (Spoken workd intro setting up a sword and dragon style story. Same kind of music as the above song, this time with a 'All hail Metal!!' theme.)

Falconer-Northwind (I've heard good things about this band and now I see why. Another great example of Euro-power metal. Love the chorus which has a folky sound to it.)

Falconer-Wings Of Serenity (More of the same and that is a good thing. I really like this guys vocals-which seems to be a pattern with many of the bands on this comp.)

CD 2

Dark At Dawn-The Aliance (This is more power metal but less Euro and more power with much gruffer vocals. This song is short but sweet, Nothing in this comp seems to put me off).

Dark At Dawn-Baneful Skies (more of the same but with some death vocals peppered througout. This time the song is longer but still sweet.)

Winterborn-Wildheart (Here we go more in a melodic metal direction than a power metal one but with some prog thrown in the mix. Once again I like what I hear, good vocals and awesome guitar solos.)

Winterborn-Last Man Standing (This is closer to Euro-power metal than the previous track and the vocals seem even more rough and powerful as well. Not as melodic but still great).

The Chasm-Entering A Superior Dimension (This time we have some melodic death metal. Not in the keyboard soaked way like Dark Tranquility but much like Amon Amarth. Nothing groundbreaking but it's still good and if I were to find something from them I would probably pick it up.)

The Chasm-Spiritual Profanity (This time it has a much less melodic sound and is more like a mix of black and old school death metal. Not bad but I prefer the other song.)

Dark Moor-Nevermore (I've had some songs from these guys in previous comps from PRD and Toho but I can't find the discs right now and the computer files were lost a while back. This is a great symphonic metal band and I definatly need to get something from them but I seem to forget them sometimes. This song shows me that I need to change that. The chorus of this song is so awesome that words escape me.)

Dark Moor-The Moon This song contains some Beethoven worship as the music contains some exerpts from his work and some others. This is a great epic song and a great of example of symphonic metla done right).

Gonish-ish-Muge No Hito ( This is one strange song tha contains elements of tribal music, traditional Japanese music and death metal-guess you could call this extreme progressive metal). These things seems so different but for me they work. Couldn't really tell you much more this needs to be heard to beleive.)

Cult Of Luna-Back To Chapel Town (This has some sludge metal qualities to it mixed death vocals and something I can't put my finger on. For some reasons, this reminds me of the kind of avante-garde music Neurosis is known for. Not sure what to think about this band and it's one of the only ones on this comp I'm not too crazy about.)

Camel-Air Born (Nice old school style prog that seems like a mix of Pink Floyd and The Moody Blues. Very airy and semi-psycadelic. Great music to just mellow out and chill to.)

Maudlin Of The Well-Bizarre Flowers/A Violent Mist (At first sounded like an updated version of the previous band but turned out to be nothing of the sort. Very mellow and airy at the begining which goes well with a term like Bizarre Flowers. The second half starts to creep in with distortion and is joined by death vocals-I guess this is the Violent Mist part-then breaking out into some doom/death with atmospheric keys. This lasts until about the 7 minute mark and breaks into a great 70s prog style guitar solo before blistering out into a heavy one then falls back into death/doom before mellowing out at the end. Definatly the second most unusual band on this comp, but I still find I like it.)

Orion Crystal Ice wrote:

dood you got mine by this time right? And did you send yours..I'm moving in like 2 days..so..

I sent it on Teuesday so it shouldn't be too long now.

CD 1:

1. Armageddon - 2002 - Intro

I guess this is an intro to song number two on the disc. Starts off with a cool Running Wild-sounding harmony, yet it's repeated a bit too often for my taste. It's still pretty cool though.

2. Armageddon - Godforsaken

And then the real song kicks in! Sounds a bit like power/thrash metal with death metal shouts thrown in for good measure. There are also a couple of death metal riffs, but most of it sounds more like thrash then death metal. Pretty nifty song, although the vocals aren't really to my liking. Not too bad, but nothing I'd buy personally. Still, this is far from bad.

3. Abstrakt Algebra - Abstrakt Algebra

Ah yes, the great Abstrakt Algebra! Being a huge Candlemaniac, these guys are no stranger for me. Great progressive power metal with doom influences, and Mats Levén is a phenomenal singer.

4. Steel Prophet - Death

Steel Prophet is one of those bands that I've known for years but never bothered to check out. This stuff is right up my alley! Classic power metal done the American way, complete with helium high classic metal vocals. I'll definitely check out some other albums by these fellows.

5. Tyrant's Reign - S.O.S.

Now this sounds lovely! Low-fi powerful power/thrash. The riffs aren't exactly original, but it works anyhow. The break around 2:11 with the solo and short spoken word part is heavenly! Reminds me a bit of Deadly Blessing actually, although without the amazing vocals courtesy of mr Ski. Pretty good stuff I'd say.

6. Valor - Empty Tomb

Haha, gotta love the cheesy scream at the beginning! The rest of the song isn't bad, but the vocals are just plain boring, and the screams sound kinda out of place. Musically the song is pretty good though, yet the fast parts with the boring vocals sound kind of out of place compared to the rest of the song. That said, it's still pretty good.

7. Veni Domine - Material Sanctuary

More good stuff. The only Veni Domine disc I have is the first one, and this sounds just a tad more progressive than that one. They still remind me of Candlemass meets Alder-era Fates Warning with Geoff Tate on vocals, and that's a good thing, so I'll have to pick this disc up as well sooner or later.

8. Thunder Rider - Death to Death

Thunder Rider is one of my favorite US metal bands, and I was actually pretty surprised to see 'em on this disc, as they aren't exactly widely known or anything. What an amazing song.

9. Trampled Underfoot - Into the Night

Heard of this band before, but never heard 'em. Now this I dig! It's heavy and powerful, but there are still plenty of hooks to be found. I wouldn't mind hearing from this band. So far one of my favorites on this disc.

10. Sardonyx - Paracletos

It takes a while for the song to get going, which makes the beginning rather boring. I love the huge bass sound on this song, and the galloping riff around the two minute mark is cool, but all in all this song is rather ordinary. Before you know it the song is over, and I just have the feeling that the song doesn't go anywhere.

11. Reverend - Butcher of Baghdad

Now this song is a helluva lot better than the boring Sardonyx song. David Wayne's powerhouse vocals rule supreme, and the music is just damn intense. Power/thrash the way it's meant to be played! I'll have to check out some more of their stuff.

12. ? - ?

Wow, this is awesome! Awesome vocals, awesome riffs, awesome drums... totally killer! The tracklisting is messed up, as one song is missing from the tracklisting. Could you tell me which band this is Kurt?

13. Powervice - Behold the Hand of Glory

I remember seeing these guys live a couple of years ago, and they smoked! Live they were absolutely amazing. This song is pretty cool too. Sounds like an Di'Anno-era Maiden. No modern ifluences whatsoever, just pure heavy metal. I wish we had more bands like this in our beautiful little country, haha! Last I heard they recorded their debut album, but vocals aren't recorded yet. True metal the way it's meant to be played!

14. Vyndykator - Flight of the Wombat

Killer instrumental song. I'll have to check out more of their stuff, but this song is pretty darn good.

15. Patriarch - At the Warlord's Command

More good old school power metal. The chorus is just a tad boring, but the rest of the song makes up for it. I'm pretty interested in hearing more of these guys now.

Review for the next disc will be up tomorrow.

DB, you'd love Keldian. I got their discs after Exact kept pimping them on every board we both visit. Ultramelodic, hooky choruses and great vocals.

CD2

1. Grand Magnus – Fear Is The Key
Never heard of this band before, but a pretty catchy tune. I would need to hear more before I decide to buy more. Straight up metal.

2. Into Eternity - Severe Emotional Distress
I have only ever heard one song by Into Eternity before and I have always wanted to check out more of their discography. This song isn’t as good as the other song I heard before – the cookie monster vocal parts taint the song a bit. The music is awesome!

3. Fozzy – Martyr No More
I have heard of Fozzy, but never heard anything by them. Instead of thinking METAL, I think of Fozzy Bear when I hear the name. This is a decent song. I wasn’t expecting much since the singer is a professional wrestler and is better than I thought!

4. XXX – I Want You To Want Me
Never heard of this band. I like Cheap Trick but this cover just doesn’t click or work for me.

5. Polkadot Cadaver – A Wolf in Jesus Skin
This one is just odd – sounds like Gary Numan (early 80’s Gary Numan) meets NiN meets Ramstein. This one didn’t work for me….

6. Throne Of Chaos – The Window
Euro-Metal (for lack of a better term). Slightly progressive, very Scandinavian sounding singer. I like this song – I may have to check out more from this band!

7. Lake Of Tears – Raistlin and the Rose
More Euro-style metal. The song was OK, I wasn’t a huge fan of the vocals.

8. Firewind – Head Up High
I like this band!!!!!! Power metal!!!!!!!! I need to check out more from these guys!!!!

10. Running Wild – Bad To The Bone
I haven’t listen to them since High School!!!! Good song by a cool band!!!! I may have to start adding to my collection….

11. Venom – Resurrection
Used to be a fan in High School had there albums. Sounds like a newer song that I am not familiar with. Still sounds like Venom…… They are an OK listen, but I’m not a huge fan.

12. Voodoo Circle – Spewing Lies
More power metal – I like it!!!!! I will need to explore this band some more. The music is good and I like the singer.
13. Helloween – Paint A New World
Great band!!!! I only have Keeper pt 2 and never seem to keep adding to the collection. This is an AWESOME Helloween song!!!!!

14. Mob Rules – Astral Hand
Heard of this band, but never heard them before. This song is in the progressive metal genre and I like it!!! Dream Theater like (and I love Dream Theater) - I will need to check out more of this band!!!

15. Savage Circus – Of Doom And Death
Reminds me of Dragonforce, but not as good. This song didn’t click for me.

16. Rage – Empty Hollow
I wondered what Rage sounded like and now I know – and I like it. I will have to try some more Rage in the future!!!

17. Fear Factory – Power Shifter
This one doesn’t click with me……

Overall, a GREAT comp from Wayne!!!!!

I must be a bigger fan of Venom then I originally thought I was since I loved the 'Resurrection' album.

Glad you liked most of the CD, DaveTheBoss. I'm sorry about the messed up tracklist. After I picked all the songs Windows Media Player showed that 3 discs were needed, and it also showed which songs would go on which disc. But when I started to burn the discs, WMP suddenly decided that more songs fit on the first disc, and then again on the second disc, so the lists were now useless, and I had to start making a new one. So I am sorry, but I am not sure what band this is. My best guess with be Ancient Cross though, as I see that they are missing from the lists. Could the song be "The Queen Is Dead"?

I already found out which song it is, it's Nice Dreams by Powermad. What an awesome song!

Of course! Yeah, that song is fantastic. I was stupid enough to sell my Powermad discs. But when someone posted the video for that song on this board, I was convinced to get it back! I believe all the bands music can be downloaded for free on their website.

DallasBlack wrote:

As promised, here is my review of the comps sent me by OCI (BTW, you were right these were great):

CD1

Labyrinth-In The Shade (I've know about these guys for a while now but never picked up a CD despite liking the music. I really need to pick something up because this is good Europ-power metal -though I know the main guy behind this band hates that label. This song has an infectious chorus, really like the vocalist. Excellent keyboard and guitar solos.)

Labyrinth-Hand In Hand (This song is even better. The vocalist sounds even clearer and is accompainied by beautiful airy keyboards. Once again, great guitar and keyboard solos here.)

The singer on the 'No Limits' album which 'In the Shade' is from is one Joe Terry, aka Fabio Lione in his debut. IMO he sounds better here than on any of the Rhapsody stuff..the mix has a little to do with it, since he is always mixed way too dry and with emphasis on the mids in Rhapsody, whereas the first Labyrinth features more of a full voiced sound with plenty of reverb. 'Hand in Hand' is from the self-titled album, after Olaf Thorsen left to focus on Vision Divine, and yet it's better than Vision Divine's albums, the band experiments more, the guitar is beefed up a lot, all the instrumental performances sound ridiculously dynamic and have a live kind of energy to them. The vocalist here is Roberto Tiranti, who has handled vocals since the second album and is probably my favorite vocalist along with Geoff Tate.

DallasBlack wrote:

Rage-Sent By The Devil (I'm only familiar with Carved In Stone Rage but this song and the one after it makes me want to locate more. This particular song doesn't seem too much different from what I do know about them.)

Rage-Wash My Sins Away (This has to be the best and most melodic song I've heard from Rage. The vocalist has reduced a lot of the roughness normally in his voice and I like the result-very pleasant voice. My next Rage CD will definatly be Ghosts).

A couple bands with big discographies, I saw you had an album by and had to decide whether to include. I was going to throw on some killer Running Wild stuff, but the one you have is 'Black Hand Inn' and if that doesn't motivate you to get more RW, well..then you just probably won't like the band. Rage on the other hand, 'Carved in Stone' is one of their weakest ones, so I thought I might put some of the really good stuff on here.

DallasBlack wrote:

Dark-Gaia's Masterpiece (My favorite kind of gohic metal, dark, meldodic, and doomy with atmospheric keys-nohting symphonic though, something I don't listen to as often as in the past so that's a good thing. This is definatly my kind of music. The death vocals are not anything different from what you normally hear in this kind of music but works well. The female vocals are used sparingly here but they are nice and pleasant-though nothing unique.

Dark-My Desire (More of the same and me likey. This song picks up the pace a little but doesn't leave gothic mode. The male vocals start off clearer and are more rhaspy like Sentenced. The death vocals do show up but I have no problem with that. No female vocals here-I'm guessing the ones in the last song are not normal for this band.)

Dark has some female vocals tossed in about 3-4 songs on each of their first two albums. The second one, 'Seduction', which 'My Desire' is from, incorporates 4 different vocal styles throughout; rough male cleans, clean male cleans, male growls, and female vocals. That's an incredible, incredible gothic metal album...and doing a lot in 1997 that wasn't all done in that field yet. Sort of a Dark Tranquillity feel at times as well. The debut, 'Endless Dreams of Sadness' is a wonderful gothic trip through Crematory in space, with keyboards and possible substances.

DallasBlack wrote:

Stormwitch-Jonathan's Diary (This is some good classic sounding metal from the golden age of metal. Here is a strong NWOBHM influence-might they actually be from that scene? Not sure what else I can say, this is something I really need to add to my collection).

Stormwitch-Intro/Sword Of Sagon (Spoken workd intro setting up a sword and dragon style story. Same kind of music as the above song, this time with a 'All hail Metal!!' theme.)

Stormwitch is actually a German band but the NWOBHM assessment is absolutely right..German NWOBHM really is what it is. Very similar to say the first two Running Wild albums and their demo tracks, and from the same era, but different in atmosphere, as Stormwitch always focuses on different fantasy/horror tales. Sometimes campy and yet having the rare feature of being a really good kind of campy. HammerFall covered their song 'Ravenlord' which turned a lot more people on to them. Very overlooked band.

DallasBlack wrote:

Winterborn-Wildheart (Here we go more in a melodic metal direction than a power metal one but with some prog thrown in the mix. Once again I like what I hear, good vocals and awesome guitar solos.)

Winterborn-Last Man Standing (This is closer to Euro-power metal than the previous track and the vocals seem even more rough and powerful as well. Not as melodic but still great).

yep, there is not much of a breakneck pace or fast double-kick motif that one would usually find in power metal, but they incorporate some influences there as well as prog touches. Overall this is just a really really good AOR/hard rock influenced metal band that has done their homework equally on Scorpions, Dokken, TNT, Dream Theater, and maybe Rage. Probably my favorite 'new' band along with Keldian.

DallasBlack wrote:

Maudlin Of The Well-Bizarre Flowers/A Violent Mist (At first sounded like an updated version of the previous band but turned out to be nothing of the sort. Very mellow and airy at the begining which goes well with a term like Bizarre Flowers. The second half starts to creep in with distortion and is joined by death vocals-I guess this is the Violent Mist part-then breaking out into some doom/death with atmospheric keys. This lasts until about the 7 minute mark and breaks into a great 70s prog style guitar solo before blistering out into a heavy one then falls back into death/doom before mellowing out at the end. Definatly the second most unusual band on this comp, but I still find I like it.)

I can't add much more than this except to say that the 'Leaving Your Body Map' album is one of the most cherished and most moving pieces of music I have.


Glad you dig comp..still hoping yours gets here, lol, today is like my last day at the house so..

Quote :

I was going to throw on some killer Running Wild stuff, but the one you have is 'Black Hand Inn' and if that doesn't motivate you to get more RW, well..then you just probably won't like the band.

I would if they hadn't called it quits, causing the price of their CDs to skyrocket (the cheapest I saw was over $40 on Amazon).

*goes to Amazon*

...

WTF? lmao. *grips collection* Well...I guess try eBay...though it's littered with weird foreign versions of everything.. I just have all the official Noise remasters with the bonus tracks..they used to be everywhere.

DB, the interwebz is not set up at my new place yet, but I've gotten through CD 1 of your comp, will be going through the second one and posting within a day or two.

DallasBlack wrote:

Quote :

I was going to throw on some killer Running Wild stuff, but the one you have is 'Black Hand Inn' and if that doesn't motivate you to get more RW, well..then you just probably won't like the band.

I would if they hadn't called it quits, causing the price of their CDs to skyrocket (the cheapest I saw was over $40 on Amazon).

Hahaha really? Glad I got all my Running Wild cd's a couple of years ago. They were pretty commong to find not tooo long ago. Another one that struck me wierd was Savatage Sirens and Dungeons Are Calling are both going for big bucks as well and its the versions from '94 that metal blade released. wierd....

Orion Crystal Ice wrote:

DB, the interwebz is not set up at my new place yet, but I've gotten through CD 1 of your comp, will be going through the second one and posting within a day or two.

I listened to your comps again and I now recognize Fabio's voice on Labyrinth. It's been a while since I listened to Rhapsody so that's probably why I didn't notice. The comps were just as good the second time around and I've decided to order CDs from Keldian, Falconer, Labyrinth, Dark Moor, and Stormwitch. I will order some from the other bands later since I'll be ordering the new Borknagar and JOP albums soon.