Best/Worst blind buys?

What are the best and worst "blind purchases" youve picked up? By blind i mean youve never heard anything from the band before picking up their album (it doesnt have to be the debut). For me, it would have to be Black Tide's Light From Above. I was expecting some nu-metal/modern rock album but i picked it up anyway and was impressed (its a shame the other stuff by them isnt like that album from what ive heard). Worst would be Mastodon-Blood Mountain. I guess i was expecting a traditional metal album and while there was some stuff i liked, it didnt really appeal to me (not enough hooks or melody).

Hadley wrote:

What are the best and worst "blind purchases" youve picked up? By blind i mean youve never heard anything from the band before picking up their album (it doesnt have to be the debut). For me, it would have to be Black Tide's Light From Above. I was expecting some nu-metal/modern rock album but i picked it up anyway and was impressed (its a shame the other stuff by them isnt like that album from what ive heard). Worst would be Mastodon-Blood Mountain. I guess i was expecting a traditional metal album and while there was some stuff i liked, it didnt really appeal to me (not enough hooks or melody).

To comment on your picks:
Black Tide was great on their first album but quickly sold out for some weird emo post-rock thing. Quite a change.

Never liked Mastodon. I find them to be overrated and they completely suck live.

My best blind buy happened last year actually. I picked up Cauldron's "Burning Fortune" and fell in love with the band. I bought it for the album cover and the track titles. Awesome NWOBHM-worship. They remind me a bit of Holocaust.

My worst blind buy was probably "Descent into Chaos" by Nightrage. I was 15 when I got it and I saw on the back that Mikael Stanne of Dark Tranquility did guest vocals on a track. I figured anything he was involved in would rock! Well, sort of. It's a good album, but I was expecting a lot more from them. I just wasn't digging the band.

Funny story about buying the Nightrage album: my friend Daniel was with me at the time. He was a new convert into heavy metal (I got him hooked after introducing him to Children of Bodom). He ended up buying "Shovel Headed Kill Machine" by Exodus and "The God That Never Was" by Dismember. The album covers look somewhat similar, and his response to me was "The covers are just so cool!" That's ironically my favorite Exodus record and Dismember's best work since 1993's "Indecent and Obscene". After about a week, we did some CD swapping and I he loved Nightrage so I traded for the Exodus and Dismember albums!

Best blind buy was Annihilator - Set the World On Fire. Had only heard one song (My Precious Lunatic Asylum) before I bought it. Ironically I didn't like it much at first but nowadays it's one of my favorites

Worst, I'm not sure. Have to think about that one some more

Worst - Monster Voodoo Machine - Direct Reaction Now -- Bought it based on a magazine review back in the day. Pure crap.

Best - Riot - Fire Down Under - I had never heard of them and thought with an album name like that, they must be from Australia. The album cover was terrible but for some reason I bought it. One of the best albums ever recorded.

Best: Trouble - The Skull. Bought it for the album cover back in '85 and was so blown away I went back to the store the next day to pick up Psalm 9.

Worst: Wolfsbane. Don't even remember the name of the album, I listened to about 3 songs and then traded it in as quick as humanly possible. When I found out the singer joined Maiden I wanted to cry.

Best:Savage Grace-Master of Disguise

Worst:Styken-whatever that album was called

Best: Nightwish - Wishmaster

Worst: Sachiko M. - Derive. All four tracks on the album are best described as "A test of the emergency broadcast system in (some note or other), extended version." I have no idea now why I picked this thing up.

Valley's Eve - Deception of Pain

I saw the sticker that said "aggressive power metal" and bought it. Obviously it helped it was only something like $2, I think, new. I love the record, especially the vocals and the thick, crunchy guitar sound. Because of that blind buy I later got into Mystic Prophecy, because they share vocalists and sound almost identical anyway. Maybe Valley's Eve is a bit more complex.

Best: Accept - Accept
After getting every UDO album possible in my metal education days, I wasn't sure what's next. So I bought the Accept CD by the advice of my mom. Still don't know which album sounded more agressive and intense as this one in '78.
Worst: Raven - Glow
Just. WTF?!1

Another good thread!

I need to ponder on the subject some more before I post though.

Worst is definitely Sunn - Black One. Not too sure about the best though.

Quote :

Worst: Wolfsbane. Don't even remember the name of the album, I listened to about 3 songs and then traded it in as quick as humanly possible. When I found out the singer joined Maiden I wanted to cry.

I'm convinced I'm the only person alive who loves those Wolfsbane albums. I even got that one that was only released in Japan - Down Fall The Good Guys. I'm even looking forward to the new one they have coming.

My best was Death Angel's The Ultra-Violence. Started me on my long time fandom. Think I bought it based off the cover I saw in an ad. Plus no way at the time I wasn't going to buy a band called Death Angel with an album named The Ultra-Violence.

Worst was Cry Wolf's Crunch. Easily wins the award for most boring album in my collection. Just has no personality or really anything remotely interesting. It's just there.

For me the notion of true blind buying has disappeared. For better or worse the internet has completely taken away the buying without getting some knowledge of what a particular record is.

Hadley wrote:

What are the best and worst "blind purchases" youve picked up? By blind i mean youve never heard anything from the band before picking up their album (it doesnt have to be the debut). For me, it would have to be Black Tide's Light From Above. I was expecting some nu-metal/modern rock album but i picked it up anyway and was impressed (its a shame the other stuff by them isnt like that album from what ive heard). Worst would be Mastodon-Blood Mountain. I guess i was expecting a traditional metal album and while there was some stuff i liked, it didnt really appeal to me (not enough hooks or melody).

My favorite best blind buy was way back in 1984, Ratt - Out of the Cellar. I hadn't heard of the band or a single track from the album. I bought it for the cover and it's still one of my all time favorite albums.

The worst would have to be Impending Doom - Nailed Dead Risen. I thought it looked like a cool Christian metal CD, but it's horrible. I've listened to it only once and barely made it through to the end.

Regarding your comment about Mastodon -Blood Mountain. I'm with you. I bought the CD based on the incredible amount of rave reviews, but I just can't get into it. I've tried. They're some cool moments on the CD, but it's just not my thing. I do like the song Curl of the Burl from The Hunter, so I decided to give them another chance and picked up that CD this week. I haven't listened to it yet, but I hope I like it.

jstate wrote:

Quote :

Worst: Wolfsbane. Don't even remember the name of the album, I listened to about 3 songs and then traded it in as quick as humanly possible. When I found out the singer joined Maiden I wanted to cry.

Worst was Cry Wolf's Crunch. Easily wins the award for most boring album in my collection. Just has no personality or really anything remotely interesting. It's just there.

We didn't trade, did we?

Ok, here are my worst, going by memory only (and a lacking on at that).

Overload - Difference of Opinion

Bought it at a flea market for next to nothing (under $2), but still feel like I wasted my money. It was just plain boring.

Murder Inc - s/t

Bought at the same flea market. It looked like a cool crossover hidden gem, but turned out to be more of an industrial thing. Not my type of music at all. I sent it to ultmetal, and he hasn't added it to his website, so I guess it was lost on him as well.

Best: Atrophy-Socialized Hate, saw the ad in Hit Parader or some other magazine & liked the album cover. Classic album

As far as worst, there were too many whose existence have been stricken from memory. I do recall some band that was on Roadracer/Roadrunner around 89. The cover had a female teacher in a domanatrix(sp?) outfit in front of a chalk board. Terrible music, Couldn't give the cassette away. Even the dude who did the metal show on USC radio was disgusted by it, & he liked EVERYTHING!

The best one that springs to mind is Angel Witch's self titled album. I'd heard the name before and decided to go for it. Class album. As for the worst... I think I've been fairly lucky going in blindly. Unless you count Triptykon, I thought it was going to be similar to Monotheist (and it is, I suppose) but I honestly can't remember the last time I spent money on something that awful. It's a pity too, because I heard the Shatter EP later and quite liked it.

My best is definitely III: In the Eyes of Fire by Unearth. I had heard good things and found this album cheap at Wal Mart so I decided to check them out. Oh man what an awesome album.

To be honest....I haven't really had a bad blind buy yet.

Yeah I don't think I've had a bad blind buy. Have been thinking and just can't come up with one

Quote :

We didn't trade, did we?

No, I inflicted that one on myself. I've held onto it mainly for it's collective value, which last I checked wasn't as much as it used to be. Funny thing is I break it out from time to time thinking maybe I just need to be in the mood for it. Always the same result.

Quote :

As far as worst, there were too many whose existence have been stricken from memory. I do recall some band that was on Roadracer/Roadrunner around 89. The cover had a female teacher in a domanatrix(sp?) outfit in front of a chalk board. Terrible music, Couldn't give the cassette away. Even the dude who did the metal show on USC radio was disgusted by it, & he liked EVERYTHING!

I assume you're thinking of S.A.D.O.'s Dirty Fantasy. I can see why people hate it, but I actually really like it. Like their follow up Sensitive too.

Best was Morbid Angel "Altars of Madness". I was in Japan at the time and walked into the base exchange and seen the cover and bought it on instinct.

Worst would have to be Children of Bodom "Something Wild". A friend told me to get it so I did and its still one of the worst albums ever released! I snapped my cd in pieces it was/is so horrible!

I must say with the age of the internet - especially nowadays with youtube - blind purchases are definitely a thing of the past. I almost never buy albums before hearing the band anymore - I would at least have to hear one or two songs before I can make up my mind whether the band / album can belong to my music collection.

That said, in the past (and about as recent as 2005) I used to buy albums either based on album artwork, or on word of mouth ... but before even hearing what they sounded like.

Some of my favorite blind purchases:

Nile's Annihilation of the Wicked - I was pondering whether to include this ... I was familiar with Nile by the time this album came out, having started listening to the band with Amongst the Catacombs (at the time this came out) but Annihilation of the Wicked really took me by surprise, I just bought it based on the name alone...

Behemoth's Demigod - my first album by this band ... strangely this album didn't grab me right away, in fact I kinda forgot all about Behemoth until they released Evangelion. In any case, over the years (after experiencing Evangelion) this album started to grow more and more on me.

Pretty Maids Red Hot & Heavy and Lethal Heroes both which I bought at the same time - I must confess, I had heard 'some' Pretty Maids songs before buying these two - basically Back to Back which Hammerfall had covered on Legacy of Kings, and also Pretty Maid's "Red, Hot and Heavy" song. So I had some idea, but I didn't know anything about Lethal Heroes, which now happens to be my favorite of the Pretty Maids albums I own.

Riot's Restless Breed - this was my first Riot album, hadn't heard anything by the band at the time ... shortly after buying Restless Breed I bought Thundersteel, which has become one of my all time favorite metal albums. Going back to Restless Breed, I thought this album rocked even though instrumentally and the songs generally seemed a bit generic but I thought Rhett Forrester was one of the most underrated singers.

Motorhead's Another Perfect Day and Rock n Roll - those were the only Motorhead albums (back about 10 years ago) that was not familiar with. I had read about both being some of Lemmy's weakest outputs from the 80s but I beg to differ.

Another Perfect Day is just a very different side of Motorhead. Arguably it doesn't sound anything like the albums that came before and after this album but I found Brian Robertson's guitarwork unique and quite infectious. I read that Motorhead got a lot of slack for this album - be that as it may, this album is still one of my favorites.

Rock N Roll - well as the title suggests, this just seems like another Motorhead album with some hidden gems. I give it to the critics, it is a rather bland sounding album overall and especially when compared to the likes of Orgasmatron released a year earlier. For what it's worth it can be a fun album but it is also an album that can be easily missed / overlooked from Motorhead's catalog.


Bad blind buys:

Surprisingly not as many as good blind buys but still a few to mention

Hollow's Modern Cathedral - basically I read a few reviews which praised this album and band as some sort of saviors for the power metal genre. I fail to see what is so good about this band and album. To me it sounds like a subpar version of just about everything that is good in power metal. Luckily this didn't cost me much.

Dismember's Hate Campaign - this was my first Dismember album and I bought it because it was $5.00 (that alone should have been a strong indication of the quality). It is about the most bland and boring Swedish death metal album I have ever heard. This album just put me off from Dismember for about a decade. A decade later I re-discovered this band through their debut "Like and Everflowing Stream" and found out what I had missed out on. Dismember for anyone who likes the early wave of Swedish death metal is a great band and pioneers of the genre but as the years wore on, their albums also became less and less interesting. The first 3 - 4 albums are probably their best (up to about 'Death Metal' they were great).

They did redeem themselves with the albums that followed after Hate Campaign but I can't say I am very familiar with those...

Icon's Night of the Crime - this album was recommended to me by a store clerk at our local metal store, he noticed I had bought a bunch of Dokken and Ratt albums and recommended I should also get Icon's Night of the Crime because they fit with Dokken and Ratt's style. Well they don't really. I won't deny - they have some okay songs but on this album the only song which stood out for me was the title track. The rest seemed just very average.

Honestly, I haven't done a "blind buy" in several years because I can usually hear stuff through friends or YouTube. I did it a lot as a teen, though. Metal Church's The Dark, Dark Angel's Darkness Descends, and Assassin's The Upcoming Terror would be some of the best ones as those are some of my favorite albums of all-time. I did hear a little bit about those bands before buying those albums, though.

Best is hands down is:



At the time (1996), I had no idea who these guys were or what they sounded like. All I knew is that it was a concept album based on Spawn. While I was never a comic book guy, I enjoyed the HBO animated series and this piqued my interest and I found it at Best Buy (back when they carried good music) and got it. IE has remained one of my all time favorite bands and Dark Saga still the best album they released.

Worst is hard to say as none of my blind purchases were totally unlistenable. Some were dissapointing but those were also cheap ($1-2).

The best blind buy for me would be Obscura - Omnivium.