Comp Swap X The Reviews!

Here's where the reviews go for the Comp Swap. Duh

I got 2 from joker...here's the first:

Comp #1:

Acrassicauda - 1."Message From Bagdad" & 2."The Unknown" - This is the Iraqi Thrash Metal band from the documentary "Heavy Metal Bagdad". These 2 songs are decent mid-tempo Thrashy Metal, shouted vocals, decent solos. It's certainly much better than I remember them being in the movie.

Hibria - 3."Reborn From The Ashes" & 4."The Skull Collectors" - Yes!! Heavy Power Metal like a blend of more uptempo Tad Morose and Vicious Rumors. The singer reminds me of Mike Vescera (Loudness, Yngwie) and his high notes are brilliant! Strong melodies, loads of guitars, head-banging tempos and absolutely stellar vocals! Fantastic!

Terasbetoni - 5."Voiman Martijat" & 6."Orjakaleeri" - Finnish Heavy Metal sung entirely in Finnish. The name (according to Wiki) means "steel concrete"...awesome. Traditional, banner-waving Euro-sounding Heavy Metal. Given the vernacular, it sounds like he's singing in English only I can't understand him...if that makes sense. A couple times I thought I "heard" something in English. The vocalist is quite good, as are the songs themselves...sort of like a more European version of Warrior.

Astral Doors - 7."New Revelation" & 8."Testament Of Rock" - I've heard of this band, but don't recall ever actually hearing them. Strong Power Metal for sure. The vocals remind me a little of Blind Guardian or Savage Circus, but the music isn't quite as epic...more melodic. I like it...it's good, melodic Power Metal with a heavy edge. the chorus to "Testament Of Rock" is cool...

Icarus Witch - 9."Black Candles" & 10."The Ripper" - Mercyful Fate/King Diamond influence for sure...along with some NWOBHM. The sound of these songs, as well as the songs themselves, are completely devoid of anything "modern". They sound like 1984 to the bone. I like "Black Candles" quite a bit. The Priest cover is cool too, even if a bit done to death.

We Are The Fallen - 11."St. John" & 12."Tear The World Down" - the band name made me expect a new, screamo type of band...thankfully I did NOT get that. Ha! My first thought was 'Evanesence worship' and a quick trip over to Wikipedia explained why...it's Ben Moody from Evanesence + a chich from American Idol. It sounds like Evanesence and will invariably be seen as a knock-off, which already sounded like a Lacuna Coil knock-off. I can't say it's bad, because it's well done. It's just nothing that's going to keep my attention for very long. Melodic Goth/Pop Rock.

Aura Azul - 13."Beyond The Doors Of Time" & 14."Caught Somewhere In Time" - Puerto Rican Power Metal. It's a litte on the darker side, less "frilly"...not Euro-sounding at all. Closer to a blend of Jag Panzer and maybe Tad Morose. Mid-tempo, head-banging goodness...strong lead guitars and decent vocals. The Maiden cover was cool to hear...you don't hear many bands covering that era of Maiden. Vocally, the singer does an admirable job covering Bruce.

The correct name is "Hibria" but neither really makes sense. I have Skull Collectors and Defying the Rules. This reminds me I need to pick up their album from last summer.

And I think Astral Doors sounds like Dio singing Blind Guardian.

Thx for the review! I haven't had a chance to listen to your yet, but I will this week and get up your reviews!

Toho - The spelling of Hibria is my bad!!!!

DallasBlack and I went digital this time (I take it you got the tunes from me, Michel?). Here are the songs I've listened to, so far (more to come when I have more free time):

Aska – “Longships” – Absolute Power

I actually own this album, but have yet to add the band to my website. This is great heavy metal, the US way. No sub-genre needed! While never really tied to the retro metal wave, this band helped to wave the classic metal banner high when the rest of the world found it uncool to do so!

Cryonic Temple – “Travelers In Time” & “Eternal Flames Of Metal” – In Thy Power

I have no idea how many times I’ve been meaning to pick this album up! I even believe Alex (exact33) sent it to me in a swap at one point, only to receive a damaged copy (broken in perfect halves!) in the mail. Darn postal service! Anyway, this is yet another traditional metal band, albeit heavily leaning towards the European power metal variety. This makes me wish I already ownd this album as well!

DragonLand – “The Neverending Story” – The Neverending Story (single)

DragonLand was one of the modern power metal/Euro-metal bands that were hailed as the next big thing, but still never really broke out of the underground. And this atrocious cover song can not have helped much either! I actually like the cheesy original, and loved the movie as a kid, but this cover is just…. Bad!

Flame – “Never Say Die” – Flame

I’ve never even heard about this band! Flame strikes me as a forgotten gem in the hair metal scene. “Never Say Die” is a catchy tune, albeit not one to deliver anything groundbreaking. On The contrary, this is a tune that’s have you sing along already on the first spin!

First Signal – “When You Believe” & “First Signal” – First Signal

Another band I was totally unfamiliar with beforehand. First Signal plays melodic hard rock, and they do it well! This reminds me of those old Angelica, Shout and Joshua albums. I love catchy tunes like these! “When You Believe” is perhaps the best song on this comp.

Flotsam & Jetsam – “Hypocrite” – The Cold

Yeah, I know, I need more Flotsam & Jetsam. This particular track is quite catchy, more modern metal than thrash, but still something that makes me wanna hear more.

Giant – “I’ll Be There When It’s Over” – Time To Burn

There are tons of melodic hard rock bands that I’ve heard in name only. Giant aren’t one of those bands, as I am already familiar with the songs “I’ll See You In My Dreams”, but nothing more though. Giant are for fans of anything with Ken Tamplin singing over it Oh, that’s a plus in my book, even though this song is sort a dime-a-dozen kinda thing.

Gotthard – “Shangri La” – Need To Believe

Yet another melodic hard rock band that I’ve heard so much about, but never checked out for myself. It’s just too many bands to invest enough time on them all. Gotthard are one of the leading bands in this genre, but still a relatively unknown band to the masses. They write clever songs that still manage to be catchy. Another killer song on this comp, and another favorite.

Heaven’s Fire – “Can You Believe” & “Now’s The Time” – The Outside

Kudos to Michel for digging up stuff I am really blank about. Heaven’s Fire delivers more melodic hard rock, but this time with a little more metal edge. Think a softer Ratt, or perhaps Great White? Another band delivering songs that stick as glue to my memory.

James LaBrie – “Crucify” & “Slightly Out Of Reach” - Elements of Persuasion & “Jekyll Or Hyde” – Static Impulse

I never became a huge Dream Theater fan, except for in the bands earliest efforts. So I never bothered to check out the singers solo albums either. DallasBlack has tried to make me a fan on other occasions as well, but this is the first time I spend time enough to hear full songs. “Crucify” and “Jekyll Or Hyde” are very heavy numbers that sound very different to anything from James’ main band, with downtuned guitars and all. “Slightly Out Of Reach” is more akin to what I’d expect from a James LaBrie solo album. It’s a ballad, with a very cool guitar solo half way through.

Lance King – “A Sense of Urgency” – A Moment In Chiros

I’ve been meaning to buy this CD since it was new. I own a lot of Lance’s other bands, and this song makes me think that his solo effort is worth an investment too! Solid mix of melody and prog.

Pentagram – “Anatolia” & “Give Me Something For The Pain” – Anatolia

Doooom! I use to say that as long as I have Candlemass, I don’t need any other doom metal albums. Well, these two tracks have proven me wrong! They are awesome!!! “Give Me Something For The Pain” is one of the best songs I’ve heard this year!

Place Vendome – “Place Vendome” – Place Vendome & “Surrender Your Soul” – Streets Of Fire

I still don’t understand why I don’t own this, as I worship just about anything with Kiske on it! These 2 songs are great, and I’m gonna remedy not owning these albums pronto!

Shiva – “Stay Out” & “Right On Time” – Shiva

More catchy melodic hard rock. I’m having so much fun listening to this comp, as there are no duds to be heard for miles here.

Stan Bush – “Love Is The Road” – Dream The Dream

Who? Never heard he name before, so this was another pleasant surprise. Yes, it’s more melodic (hard) rock, but this track is no more “hard” then say Survivor or Starship.

Thunder – “Backstreet Symphony” – Backstreet Symphony

I think I used to own this album, but it never gave me much, so I sold it. I understand that this band is a fan favorite in their genre, and while this particular track is cool, I remember getting bored over the course of the full album.

Twisted Tower Dire – “Some Other Time, Some Other Place” & “To Be A Champion” – Crest of the Martyrs

Just like with Aska, I own this album too. And the similarities doesn’t stop there. Twisted Tower Dire is yet another band that have been flying the true metal flag high for more than a decade now. They have an Iron Maiden wibe to them, but at the same time they sound very American. A great band for sure!

I personally love that Dragonland cover, but I guess I'm in the minority. I too like the origional and always thought it would make a good power metal song. Personally, I would have slowed it down a little bit but I still liked the end result. Oh well, I guess every comp swap needs a dud.

Heaven's Fire was an indie band whose album I came accross in a bargain bin at my favorite used CD store. I see them as prog metal meets melodic hard rock. They never released anything else and that was due to the drummer (one of the founding members) passing away. This CD is hard to find and probably expensive (I think I found one for over $50 a while back) so if you'd like, I could send you a copy.

Stan Bush wrote the song, "The Touch" on the Transformer's movie soundtrack (the 80s cartoon).

I'll get to yours as soon as I can, though I have listened to some of it already. I've been busy stripping wallpaper lately (it's long hard work).

A few more notes:

Aska is a local band in this area which makes it even cooler. In the late 80s and early 90s, Texas had quite a true metal scene (classic, power, & thrash). Not so much anymore. Unfortunatly, most of their earlier albums are out-of-print and quite expensive.

The James LaBrie song "Slightly Out Of Reach" contains one of my favorite guitar solos ever. The axe slinger is a relatively new guy who was allowed to use one of John Petrucci's personal guitars. Most of his solo material is real heavy prog metal with more attitude and simpler songs than DT. Until Black Clouds & Silver Linings came out, I was fond of saying James' material is stronger than Dream Theater's most recent offerings.

Also, that Pentagram is not the legendary doom band but a Turkish doom band that borrows heavily from traditional Turkish music. They are known outside of Turkey as: Mezarkabul.

Quote :

Mezarkabul

Good band...

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

Quote :

Mezarkabul

Good band...

Indeed! I actually got that as a blind buy in Half-Price Books' bargain bin. I thought it was the other Pentagram band (who I've never heard-I guess I should check them out) but the traditional Turkish influence told me otherwise.

Here's my review of Comp # 1 (Disc 2 coming soon) from Shawn Of Fire:

Glenmore – Political Games, Speak To Me
Melodic metal – 1st track sounds like Hair Metal mixed with euro-metal melodies, 2nd track is euro power metal. I couldn’t find much about them, but thanks to the translation power of Google Chrome and the German Wikipedia site, they were a German Metal band on the Polydor label

Siam – Interaction, Queen Of Swords
Band from Birmingham, UK that disbanded in 1996. The song is a good, melodic metal song. Sounds like they have a bit of L.A. Pop Metal influence. The singer seems to have some Geoff Tate influences, especially on the song Queen Of Swords.

The Codex – Toxic Kiss, Beyond The Dark
Melodic Power Metal from Sweden. Catchy melodies and decent tracks but not all that memorable. After I listened to the whole CD, I tried to remember how the song sounded but it seemed to be the least memorable. That said, I wouldn’t mind hearing a whole album from these guys to get a better feel for them.

Saint Daemon – In Shadows Lost From The Brave, My Judas
Euro Power Metal is the best way to describe this band, but they do seem to use a bit more melody in their music. The singer has a great voice! Both tracks are great, I have heard of this band but I never head a song by them until this comp.

Ride The Sky – New Protection, Silent War
Wikipedia refers to the band as Progressive Power Metal, but they seem more Euro Power Metal to me. I don’t hear the progressive part of the music. Good vocals and catchy songs.

Lemur Voice – Akasha Chronicles
These guys must have been heavily influenced by Dream Theater. I like the song, it’s an instrumental. I would want to hear a track with vocals before I explore this band further.

Kuni – Lookin’ For Action
Big time 80’s Pop metal. Looks like Kuni is a Japanese guitarist whose albums feature all guest members. Pretty good track that could have easily fit on the MTV countdown circa 1989.

Jaded Heart – Justice Is Deserved, Sinister Mind
I couldn’t find anything about this band, but musically the first track is 80’s Pop Metal from the riffs to the melodies to the production which means I like it and I could picture myself driving around in my former car, a 1984 Ford Escort circa 1989 cranking this on the cassette car stereo. The second track is 80’s pop metal with a little Euro Metal thrown in for good measure.

Human Clay – Golden Years, Outside Lookin’ In
Some Jeff Scott Soto – I hadn’t heard Human Clay before, but since it is Jeff Scott Soto, as you can imagine it is melodic hard rock/heavy metal. Jeff has a GREAT voice and as some of know, he sang with Journey for 15 minutes, which is probably why Shawn put it on the comp (just kidding!). I like the tracks, the sound great but it sounds like Jeff record the vocals and hired a band to put some music behind his vocals.

Dali’s Dilemma – Within A Stare
Looks like they are a progressive metal band from San Jose that released one album and are very much “inspired” by Dream Theater. Not bad, but I liked the other Dream Theater type band a bit better.

JSS sings for Kuni too...

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

JSS sings for Kuni too...

LOL!!! I thought the voice sounded familiar but couldn't place it!

thejokeriv wrote:

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

JSS sings for Kuni too...

LOL!!! I thought the voice sounded familiar but couldn't place it!

JSS? Sign me up for those because in recent years he has become one of my favorite vocalists. Whether it's the neo-classical metal of Axel Rudi Pell, the melodic hard rock of W.E.T., the broadway metal of TSO, or the many other music styles his wide range of vocals fits into, he is simply amazing. Nice guy if you ever get to meet him too.

DallasBlack wrote:

thejokeriv wrote:

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

JSS sings for Kuni too...

LOL!!! I thought the voice sounded familiar but couldn't place it!

JSS? Sign me up for those because in recent years he has become one of my favorite vocalists. Whether it's the neo-classical metal of Axel Rudi Pell, the melodic hard rock of W.E.T., the broadway metal of TSO, or the many other music styles his wide range of vocals fits into, he is simply amazing. Nice guy if you ever get to meet him too.

It's too bad the Journey thing didn't work out - I would have loved to hear a new Journey album with JSS. But, Neil Schlong decided that they needed a Steve Perry clone instead.......

He was really young then...he's a little higher pitched than he is now, or even w/ Yngwie...

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

He was really young then...he's a little higher pitched than he is now, or even w/ Yngwie...

Yet listen to him on TSO and you wouldn't know it was him:

I'm going to I-tap tomorrow for March Madness (it's a beer snob bar). I'm going spin jstate's comp again on the way to and from before I review it here. I already know I like the second half much more than the first half.

thejokeriv wrote:

Here's my review of Comp # 1 (Disc 2 coming soon) from Shawn Of Fire:

Glenmore – Political Games, Speak To Me
Melodic metal – 1st track sounds like Hair Metal mixed with euro-metal melodies, 2nd track is euro power metal. I couldn’t find much about them, but thanks to the translation power of Google Chrome and the German Wikipedia site, they were a German Metal band on the Polydor label

Siam – Interaction, Queen Of Swords
Band from Birmingham, UK that disbanded in 1996. The song is a good, melodic metal song. Sounds like they have a bit of L.A. Pop Metal influence. The singer seems to have some Geoff Tate influences, especially on the song Queen Of Swords.

These are killer.

Disc 1 from jstate:

1. Killer - Heavy Metal

Nothing really wrong with this song but nothing really special either. Pretty typical proto-heavy metal. About as generic as the title would suggest IMO.

2. Tank Buster Jack - Rock & Roll Never Dies

This is more my style. I like the main guitar riff a lot. This reminds me of a sleazier Motorhead. And therein lies the problem; the singer reminds me of Lemmy. I like the music a lot but I just can't get past the Lemmy-esque lead vocals.

3. Deathwish - Wall Of Lies

Speedy track with decent enough vocals but not enough melody for my liking.

4. Dyoxen - Essence Of Ignorance

I have no idea how to explain this one. This is a mostly instrumental track consisting of about a half dozen different riffs that rotate in and out interspersed between solos. These guys can definitely play but it's like they threw every riff they thought up into one song.

5. Dread - Slay The Kings

Didn't like this one at all. The verse is just 2 notes and the chorus consists of belting out the title in a shrill "metal voice". Not my thing.

6. Penance - Words To Live By

This one was OK. Sounds sorta like James Hetfield fronting Monster Magnet IMO. Downtuned guitars that get even slower for the chorus. Is this stoner doom?

7. X - Easy Fight Rambling

With a title like that, I should've guessed these guys were Japanese. This song was actually pretty decent with some nice hamonies on the chorus. Unfortunately, I couldn't understand a thing being said so I have no idea what the song is about. Looking for info on this band, most sites credit a band called "X-Japan" with doing this song but it was labelled just "X" on my CD. Thankfully it wasn't Exene Cervenka's punk band X.

8. Rock City Angels - Rumblefish

Now this band I know. In fact I saw them live at the New Daisy in Memphis back in the late 80s. I have the album this song is from "Young Man's Blues". Sleazy rock n roll just like I like it!

9. Sin - Nightwinds

And now we come to the real gem on this comp. First off, I love the vocals of this song. Secondly the melody for the chorus is really different sounding; haunting yet memorable. The verse has some tastefully understated keyboards that help enforce that haunting feel. Plus, I'm always a sucker for the old "soft verse then bring in the guitars on the chorus" formula. I need to find more by these guys but researching a band with a name like "Sin" is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Got the album name jstate?

10. Sencirow - Burn It Down

I like this one a lot too. Speedy verse with gang vocals in the chorus over a chugga chugga riff. This song reminds me a lot of Shok Paris' "On Your Feet" and that's definitely a good thing. I'll be scoping out more music from this band.

11. War & Peace - Wrong Place Wrong Time

I think I've passed this one over in the cutout bins several times. I won't the next time I see it. I really like the vocal harmonies in the chorus and especially the Queen like harmonies after the guitar solo. Did a little research and learned this is a project by Jeff Pilson and features such guests as Reb Beach, John Norum, Paul Gilbert and Richie Kotzen. I'll be picking this up.

12. Ancient Cross - Hourglass

I really wanted to like this. It starts out fairly sparse with spare guitar and a quiet lead vocal and slowly builds over the course of 5 or so minutes into...a suddenly slow/sparse ending. I so wanted it to just speed up and cut loose into a scorching final minute because that seemed to be what it was building to but sadly no. Not bad but I was kinda disappointed it didn't go where I thought it was going.

13. Beggars & Thieves - Wash Away

I have this bands S/T from the late 80s. I had heard they put out another one after all this time and this is from that one. It's a little too much of a power ballad for me but since I know the band rocks harder than this I'll probably pick this album up. This isn't a bad song but it reminds me of Train if Train had more balls.

To some it up, the winners on this disc for me were Sin, Sencirow and War & Peace. Help me research that Sin disc, jstate. Title please? Nice job overall.

I googled Sin - Nightwinds. Here is the first "hit":

Quote :

A German Progressive Melodic Metal band. The initials mean " Somewhere Into Nowhere". The song belongs to " Equilibrium " album from 2005.

Cool. Thanks.

Still no luck on Amazon though.

Comp Swap X review for RequiredFields’ CD #1. I will review #2 later (to be honest I haven’t heard it yet as I am really enjoying spinning this first disc still. Thanks for the great cd!!).

I don’t profess to be a metal ‘expert’ just a metal fan (for the last 35 years or so) so I consider songs in terms of if I like them or not. So I’m reviewing this cd as “compilation of Metal”.

This cd is a great comp of 15 songs of ‘metal’. It had a good span of metal music, some stuff I was familiar with and lots that I was not. It had a lot of “old school/traditional metal” (Morgana Lefay, Sortilege, Banshee, CJSS, Manilla Road, Crimson Glory, Shok Paris). I was not familiar with any of these (except Shok Paris—“Cleveland Rocks!” and I was familiar with David Chastain but never liked his stuff. I like this CJSS song though. Good metal). All these songs/bands took me back to those early days, in that they reminded me of the mid-80’s bands, particularly early Savatage and early Fate’s Warning. Great stuff.

There was some Death Metal—Gorguts, Burial, and Decapitated. There was also a Solstice (Fla.) song. Although their first cd was pure Florida Death Metal, this song came from a cd that always reminded me more of Demolition Hammer. Great band/song. I like Gorguts but this particular song was too slow/doomy for me. The Decapitated song was pure Decapitated Polish Death Metal (ala Vader, Trauma, Hate). Awesome stuff.

There was also some Thrash (my favorite), containing songs by Razor, Assorted Heap, Havok, and I’ll put Exhorder in this category for this review. Really love the Razor song—The Meaning of Pain-- (I like speed in my thrash), Assorted Heap was as he advertised “brutal thrash metal”. When I read that, I was expecting something along the lines of Dew Scented (whom I like). This is better, more pure in its thrash. Havok is great (“On Your Feet For Sentencing!”). I love both of Havok’s discs.

I will definitely check out more for some of these bands. Thanks again for these tunes. They made a great metal comp.

I'm glad you dug the first CD, man!

Hey Kurt, sorry I haven't reviewed any of your comp yet. With wallpaper stripping, wall sanding I haven't gotten around to it. I will start Wednesday as tomorrow (Tuesday), I'm going to get my permanent crown put in at the dentist. Dentist visits for teeth fixing always result in some pain or another (my back molars take a lot of novacaine to be numbed and sometimes wear off before the procedure is done) so the hours before are pretty stressful. After this round of dental work, I don't plan on ever having any procedure done for the rest of my life (about time I learned my lesson).

DallasBlack wrote:

I will start Wednesday as tomorrow (Tuesday), I'm going to get my permanent crown put in at the dentist.

TheKing has a crown too Only mine didnt come from the dentist