Techmaster P.E.B. - Bassgasm (1994) CD Newtown Music Group

And now for something completely different. In the 1990's, a few of my skating buddies had very nice systems in their cars and car audio bass was the shit. I mean, you could listen to The Misfits or Minor Threat (which we did anyway) but you weren't really getting the full effect of your 2 12" system with anything but bass CD's.

Now, being a HUGE fan of 1980's electro, the car audio bass and Miami bass genres totally appeal to me as they are the evolution of that sound. Early Miami bass masters like Dynamix II and Maggotron, Maggozulu Too, DXJ (all James Mc Cauley projects) and MC A.D.E. all took that sound and drove it forward while really trying to retain its roots, using a lot of the same samples and sounds, but pushing the bass side of things more and more until car audio bass was born.

Car audio bass is pretty much what it sounds like - super bass heavy albums with minimal other effects or beats. It's more sine waves for the bass than TR-808 or 909 beats and designed in part to test the limits of your stereo and certainly make your car thump very loudly.

There were quite a few practitioners who didn't add much real music to the bass tracks, but a select few who did - and ended up crafting some fantastic, minimalist, atmospheric electro albums in the process. Chief among these was Techmaster P.E.B.

This is his third record and one of my favorite chilling records of all time. Its laid back for the most part and laden with beautiful synthisizer riffs and effects, kind of like existing in the world of Tron and taking a lesurely drive to the MCP.

Techmaster is still going today and still releasing albums with the same feel and heavy chill vibe. Check out his catalog at techmasterpeb.com.

Toxic Holocaust - Critical Mass (2002) CD-R Nuclear Hell Records

Critical Mass may be one of the top two or three of my favorite albums of the new wave of thrash - its certainly one of Joel's best and rawest, recorded solo and self-distributed. The cover is zeroxed and just a piece of paper folded in half, like so many cassette demos. It's a fast and brutal thrash record, but with some varying sounds, like Joel was still testing the waters with what TH could do.

Songs like 'I'm Not Dead' and 'Prelude To War' are more fitting on Joel's other side project at this time, Hellvomit, which was more of an apocylaptic noise outfit. There are some excellent tracks on the record, including 'Atomik Destruktor', 'The Need To Kill' and a bitching cover of 'Sacrifice' by Bathory.

This demo has since been rereleased by Hells Headbangers Records and I believe its able to be purchased on iTunes.

Bathory - The Return... (1985) CS Combat Records

Of the first wave of black/death metal bands, Bathory ranks among the best with some intense songs and fantastic full-length albums while also taking a definite lo-fi approach to recording. The album quality on each of the first three records is definitely not audiophile stuff, but its at the same time a testement to what Quorthon, Bathory's sole member, saw as his type of metal. The sound would be copied almost exactly by the emerging Norwegian black metal scene in the 1990's.

The Return... is Bathory's second album and one of the first four albums that retained the same sound before Quorthon changed up the sound of Bathory and pretty much single-handedly created Viking Metal.

Like the s/t debut from Bathory, this album also starts out with a short intro track, haunting and at the same time strangely calming. In fact, there was a time I use to put this album on before I went to sleep and found myself drifting off to sleep on more than one occasion once the album looped on this track. It then launches into 'Total Destruction', a fast paced, almost pre-thrash thrash with vocals that are grating and harsh but that fit perfectly within the music and raw production style. Quorthon had his own style of singing for sure - short, choppy vocals spread out on each verse and chorus - never rushed and unique enough to make Bathory sound otherworldy.



Quorthon never lacked good material and there are a ton of great standout tracks on The Return... but it is still a comprehensive album. It is interesting to note that the quality of production actually went downhill on the first three releases - most likely on purpose - and on Bathory's next album Under the Sign of the Black Mark the production is even rougher than this effort and some songs require a few listens to even distinguish guitar tracks on them.

This is the cassette version of this great record, one that I take with me to my father's house whenever I visit as I only have a tape deck left behind in my room there. For being such an evil sounding record, its somewhat calming for me, a relaxing and pure record that remains one of my favorite efforts from the late, great Quorthon.

Celtic Frost - Morbid Tales (1984) LP Combat/Noise Records

Morbid Tales, originally released in 1984, shortly after the demise of Hellhammer, is possibly the most powerful work from Celtic Frost and a statement from the band at the time, looking to distance themselves from Hellhammer's simple (but very effective) garagey sound.

The album opens with a series of screams looped over each other for about a minute and then the album kicks forward into 'Into Crypts of Rays,' a blistering black metal fusion of punk driven by over distorted guitars. The sound is so raw, it sounds other worldly. To achieve this, Tom took his Marshall JCM800 and finally found a pedal to really give it the punch he was looking for - an Ibanez Tube Screamer. It's become a staple of blues and rock guitarists for its ability to push the tubes of a given amp into distorting and with his Marshall on 10 and this pedal at full voice, the amp cranks out some howling tones.


Morbid Tales was first released in Europe with only 6 of these tracks and was filled out with songs from the Emperor's Return EP when it was released for the states, making it a full LP.

There is no filler here - every track is hard-hitting and much more developed than any of Hellhammer's previous material. It includes 'Danse Macabre,' a type of song which was to become somewhat of a staple of the band - an etherial piece that's way more avant guarde than metal and from here on out, they would wear that avant guarde metal tag like a badge, really pushing every album to include tracks in this realm alongside their more metal offerings.

For me, this is the most killer album they released - its raw and direct and the production is suitably free of reverb or other effects and just kills me everytime I hear it. 'Return to the Eve' and 'Procreation of the Wicked' are just killer tracks and even though the band definitely got more talented, that driven punk-influenced Hellhammer sound is still there.



For those of you reading this review who have never listened to Celtic Frost and have records from any black metal after 1989 in your collection - give this a listen. You can hear so many other bands imitations of them in this record - that heavy death and roll sound of Emperor, the tight, focused thrash metal that was being born then and certainly in a lot of the Norwegian and Scandanavian bands that came after them. Celtic Frost were true pioneers and really defined a genre before it truely existed.

Celtic Frost - To Mega Therion (1985) LP Noise Records

After the Morbid Tales EP and Emperor's Return EP, Celtic Frost finally dropped their first official full-length record, To Mega Therion. Fans found a record with the raw, unfettered approach previous efforts were full of, but also a maturing Frost - one with a great depth of sound and more intricate arrangements - and a true masterwork.

The beautiful and dark cover art and inside gatefold is original artwork by none other than H.R. Giger, whom Tom (Warrior) Gabriel Fisher convinced back in his Hellhammer days to let them use it for one of their future records and its quite an impressive way to present your first LP.

In Are You Morbid - Into The Pandemonium of Celtic Frost,  (essentially the biography of Tom and Celtic Frost, long out-of-print), Tom mentions that he wanted to put distance between Celtic Frost and Hellhammer at the bands outset and you can see where with each new release, they take big leaps forward, trying to outrun Hellhammer's reputation. This record is no exception.

There are female vocals on a few tracks, some additional instruments added to the mix to fill out some of the more epic arrangements, like the album opener, 'Innocence and Wrath' and 'Dawn of Meggido' and much more complex song writing like the six-minute and change 'Necromaniacal Screams'.


They still have driving punk-inspired riffs on tracks like what may be my favorite track, 'Jewel Throne' and also brutal, direct tracks like 'The Usurper' making the whole record much more varied and intense.



It's an album that I have loved for years, but it marks for me the transition to the avant-guard sound they became known for on Into The Pandemonium. Where I wanted more dark, punk-influenced thrashy tracks, Frost started putting in more progressive tracks with much more varied songwriting - seemingly moving away from the raw emotion so expertly conferred through their earlier records. And it wasn't due to the influx of capitol that usually accompanies a band breaking out and having a few successful records. In Are You Morbid Tom later talks about how Noise was terrible at giving advances, making royalty payments, financing tours and so forth. Bills were stacking up, getting money together to tour was getting harder and through all that, they put out an emotionally charged, expertly written and brutal record, one that still amazes me so many years after I first heard it.

It is a record that almost defies description - its part thrash, part death metal, part black metal, part punk, part gothic. It's no wonder they got labeled as avant-guard.

Metallica - Metal Militia (1983) LP Metal Records

Sometimes I'll buy a record knowing I could be in for a total piece of shit in terms of quality, just to have something that is either A) rare or B) somehow noteworthy or C) the one record I need to finish a band's catalog. This purchase was actually all three.

This happens to be an LP version of the infamous No Life 'Till Leather casette demo that was passed around in the underground - the one that got Metallica a record deal with Megaforce. It also has the Whiplash demo on it, which was a pre-studio recording demo made specifically for Megaforce - sometimes known as the Megaforce demo or the Whiplash/No Remorse demo as it is only those two songs.

The later demo is actually clear on this LP and probably the only reason to own it. The No Life Till Leather demo is pretty poor interms of quality as it is presented here. You have to dime the volume to hear anything on my stereo (and my stereo shakes the windows at about 6). Its taken from pretty washed out source material.

On the plus side, its got bitchin' cover art and its the only copy of the Whiplash demo I have. It did also fuel me to find a good copy of the No Life 'Till Leather demo, which I did just a bit ago...



It does highlight Metallica at the beginning of their career, at a time when they kicked serious ass all over the metal scene. The recordings were made with Dave Mustaine on the guitar, so you get to hear his original leads and 'The Four Horsemen' is actually 'The Mechanix', Dave Mustaine's version he later recorded with Megadeth.

You also get some of the vocal highs James was trying for early on as he was still trying to emulate Diamond Head's Sean Harris.



I love these demos and the raw feel from a band so known for their studio cleanness. Say what you will about what they have become - yes, I cringed pretty much all the way through 'Some Kind Of Monster' - what they were was something that will never be repeated.

Celtic Frost - Emperor's Return (1985) EP Metal Blade Records

If I were to have to pick a top five bands of all-time, as tough as it might be to narrow down, I know that Celtic Frost would make that list. Not only are they the godfathers of black and death metal who left an indeliable mark on the exploding aggressive US metal scene, but they abolutely slay. There is so little filler material that each album feels like an express train roaring through your brain in the best possible way.

Celtic Frost evolved from the seminal garage death metal band Hellhammer and while they got much better at playing and arranging their material, they kept a rawness sorely lacking in the late NWOBHM scene. Their recordings from their early years are clean and raw and dark. The vocals are unique, certainly for the time, and have Tom growling and uttering gutteral heys. ows and ughs, which do so much more than you would think to puncuate the music.

'Dethroned Emperor' is by far one of my favorite tracks here and may be my favorite Celtic Frost song period. It's got a deep, driving riff and a great breakdown section.



As 1985 was happening, the US scene was in a full on thrash love affair, with speed and dexterity being paramount, but Celtic Frost stayed slow and plodding - more Sabbath than Saxon in their speed. Their dedication to that very distinct detuned, overdriven, heavy sound laced with so much aggression is what makes the first five Celtic Frost records so impressive and its ramped up to its fullest here.



This EP came out shortly after the Morbid Tales mini-LP and has subsequently been added to the CD versions of Morbid Tales - so you may have been listening to this EP and not known it! It's also got some of the best cover art of the 1980's by far.

This EP is still available on CD with Morbid Tales and an easy find and a must own. Seriously. Go by it. Now.

Metallica - Creeping Death (1984) CS EP Music For Nations

 

I bought this cassette tape back in like 1986 when I heard Master of Puppets for the first time and thought it was the shit. 'Creeping Death' is one of the best tracks off of Ride The Lightning and the two covers here are classics by Diamond Head and Blitzkrieg respectively.

When Garage Days Re-Revisited came out in 1987, I remember wondering "where was Garage Days Revisited?" Well, its here. The two covers comprise all of the Garage Days Revisited side of the cassette. As a kid, I was always hoping for a lost, full-length release with two full sides of covers, which I was treated to later on Garage, Inc. At the time, I actually loved the covers on the b-sides of their singles almost as much as the actual songs, songs like "The Prince" (Diamond Head) and "Breadfan" (Budgie) got as much play as the a-side stuff and actually turned me onto both of those bands.

The cover art of the LP was amazing, with a very dark, foggy pass and the words "Creeping Death" below it. I always wanted to hunt down the LP just for the cover art and have yet to find a copy at one of my area record stores.



I was a huge Metallica fan growing up and it was the first arena rock show I saw, seeing them on the 1989 Damaged Justice tour in October in Minneapolis. They blew me away, even if I thought ...And Justice For All was a bit of a more commercial album than I was hoping for when it came out. I really didn't know what to think when I saw the video for "One" and hoped it was going to be their only forray into commercialism. Unfortunately, I was super wrong.

As it stands, Ride The Lightning is probably my favorite Metallica record and this short EP is a great taste of Metallica at a time when they had yet to hit MTV and still had Cliff and were the kings of the thrash scene, always a step ahead of their contemporaries.

Barkhard - Barkhard (1985/2007) LP Zorlac/Rabid Dog Records

 

Skate rock is one of my soft spots - no matter what I am focused on listening to, I can always take a break and bust out a JFA, Big Boys, McRad, D.R.I. or Drunk Injuns record and get a short fix and leave smiling.

When I first started skating, Thrasher's 'Skate Rock' series of tapes and vinyl were necessities for our driveway and curbside sessions. Those records turned me onto so many bands - COC, JFA, Septic Death, McShred (later McRad), MDC - and I still listen to them with great regularity.

However, I never knew about Barkhard until I stared looking at getting some records that I needed to fill gaps in my pretty solid skate rock section of my vinyl collection. Barkhard was the skate rock house band of sorts of Zorlac. Now, if you didn't skate in 1985, you would probably only remember Zorlac from the graphics which were done by Pushead, lead singer of Septic Death and later made famous by all of the artwork he did for Metallica. Pushead had done of a ton of art for so many bands at that point (including the Misfits and Samhain) and his style was instantly reconizable, so Zorlac gear was worn often, even if the boards seemed scarce.

Barkhard was comprised of four Zorlac skaters - vocalist Todd Prince, lead guitarist John Hancock, bassist Joe Nichols, drummer Scott Campbell, and probably the most well-known of the bunch, guitarist John Gibson.

John was the Christian Hosoi of the TX skate scene, an incredible vert skater and someone who went big all the time. His board graphics remain my favorites from Zorlac, and I'm certainly not the only one who enjoyed them - this pic of Kirk Hammet of Metallica (pre-commercialism) showcases them quite well - were also done by Pushead and just stellar.

The band itself is more direct west coast style hardcore punk with a healthy dose of humor thrown in. Tracks like 'Psycopathic Roach', 'Party Barkhard' and 'Beg Us To Stop'  all have a level of dumb fun in them and the more direct tracks are very reminiscent of MDC, tracks like 'I.C.B' and 'To Myself'.




It's raw and fast and actually talented stuff here, with diving guitar licks spicing up the songs even if the production doesn't. Exactly my kind of skate rock. This is a vinyl rerelease done by Rabid Dog Records in 2007 and there is also a CD reissue out you can get on the cheap at Amazon. Now, if I can only hunt down a John Gibson Zorlac board to adorne my wall...

Iron Reagan - Demo 2012 (2012) CS Tankcrimes

 

Iron Reagan is the side project of Tony Foresta of Municipal Waste and its a dense, fast thrash, more raw and stripped down than Municipal Waste and more in line with the '80's crossover esthetic than the party one. The demo is only four songs and its fantasticv. The guitars are raw, more unfiltered and JCM800 raw, like the sound on Slayer's 'Reign In Blood' with a good pedal in front. The songs are simple and fast and hard hitting. The riffs are direct with no fucking around at all. It feels like almost a better throwback band than Municipal Waste!



The demo is sold out on Tankcrimes' store now, but its floating around the net and should be easy to find to download. Highly recommended and awesome.

Cannabis Corpse - Blunted at Birth (2006) LP Forcefield Records

I have known about Cannabis Corpse for a while, but only that they were a weed-laced tribute to Cannibal Corpse, but never looked in on them as I assumed they were nothing but a joke band. I picked this LP up on a whim, mostly thinking it would be worth a laugh and nothing much more. Boy, was I wrong. I brought it home, put it on and after the first side of the LP, I turned to my fiancee, Linda and told her I was gonna buy their entire catalog immediately. Which I did that night.

Cannabis Corpse are an excellent, brutal death metal band delivering a heavy punch of accomplished VA death metal by some very talented guys. They are also a heart-felt tribute to Cannibal Corpse with the name of the band and all the song titles (at least on the first two records) references to that legendary band. The songs and lyrics, however, are totally original. And brutal and fantastic and totally impressive.


The band is made up of Richmond, VA metal heads with Phil 'LandPhil' Hall (from Municipal Waste) and his brother Josh 'HallHammer' Hall as the two founding members. It's a side project band, but that in no way explains how good they are. It feels like a well-rehearsed machine with some fantastic riffs and guitar work. The vocals are guttural and extreme but well-done and actually partially understandable. It also helps that the LP comes with a lyric sheet - and holy shit, there is some very funny stuff here. From 'Staring Through My Eyes That Are Red':

Follow down into my lair
rotten smell, they smoke their weed there
her heady weed hits the air
I awake, from my coffin I stare
shaking hands, their bowl has fallen
to me this night, the pot has callen
I awake from death to toke it
hand from the fround, now I claim and smoke it
Smoke it
give to me, I wait and lie
graveyard slaughter, must get high
must get you dead
skull i split and scalp i peel
blazed as shit, can this be real
stoned as shit now
flesh i crave
for my munchies its your brain i save

It wouldn't be a stretch to say that 90% of what I have listened to this past week is Cannabis Corpse. The catalog is that fantastic with this being their debut LP. It's short, more like an EP and the vinyl actually also plays at 45 rpm. It is an absolute that if you like death metal and weed (thought that part isn't strictly necessary) you should check these guys out. Their catalog is for sale on Tankcrimes and you can also listen to each record on the site. The rest of the catalog is also as impressive as this first record, which is really saying something about the dedication and talent here. Go buy everything.

Samhain - Unholy Passion (1985) EP Plan 9

Samhain was one of my favorite bands growing up, next to the Misfits and Minor Threat, a super dark, slow kinda punk that totally connected with me. Luckily, they were still around so getting their releases wasn't too hard and posters and merch were easy to find at the cooler record shops in town. Samhain trades the campy fun of the Misfits for a serious, goth rock feel, which really works with Glen's voice and the echo laden, percussion driven sound of the band.

As a kid, I dug the cover art for their records, especially this release and Initium. I actually bought a Samhain poster from Cheapo Records in Minneapolis when I lived there in 1989 with the cover art for Initium advertising a show and it was HUGE, in color and for a young rebelous youth, the perfect thing for showing how serious I was about punk and Samhain. Three dudes covered in blood? Skulls? Awesome. I put it up over my bed as soon as I got home and proudly showed it to my mother - who then promptly made me take it down and get rid of it. I traded it to a friend of mine for two Misfits posters which I still have to this day, but fuck, I really wish I had the Samhain poster. If you read this Tony, and you still have that poster, hit me up!

I bought this EP, Unholy Passion, on cassette tape back in the day and like Initium, I listened to it a ton. I was always impressed with the song writing, even at a young age, and liked the simplicity and vocal melodies and slow goth feel. Initium definitely feels like a transition record from the Misfits - which it is - and this was the first release to feel like they got their sound down. The chimes at the end of 'Unholy Passion' really show their penchant for percussion, as does their remake of the Misfits classic, 'All Hell Breaks Loose' as 'All Hell' with a massive drum sound.


It's one of the best Samhain records in terms of raw song writing, even if Samhain III - November Coming Fire has a few better standout tracks. There isn't a bad track here and its a showcase for Glen's voice for sure, but a total package release with the rawness Glen would leave behind later in Danzig, something I sorely missed.

I bought this EP about ten years or so ago and even though at that time I wasn't listening to anything nearing punk, I snagged it fast, as my cassette tape had long since given up the ghost. Now, of course, its rare and sought after and I'm stoked to have it in the collection.

I also found a flyer for a show of theirs with Poison 13, one of the best skate punk/garage bands that ever existed in the EP sleeve. I picked it up when I was listening to a lot of Poison 13 and trying to collect anything the members were involved in. I tend to keep things like that in with my records so they don't get lost in some box in some move and its a cool little addition this this fantastic EP. To be at that show in Austin would have been really amazing.

Unholy Passion was later remixed and rereleased on Final Descent and later, in the Samhain boxset with Glen playing the guitar tracks and this original version, as far as I can tell, is still out of print.

Municipal Waste/Toxic Holocaust - Toxic Waste (2012) EP Tankcrimes

Fast and unrelenting, this EP brings together two of the best of the new wave of thrash, Municipal Waste and Toxic Holocaust. It's a fantastic release by Tankcrimes, who may be my new favorite label.

I don't think I have hyped a label before on here, but do yourself a favor and go check out Tankcrimes right now. You can hear samples of all the bands on the site - like actual full songs - and they have some fantastic groups, lots of good thrash and even good prices in the store, especially in a day and age when new vinyl releases for metal bands are hitting $20-30.

This EP was a while in the making and finally came out earlier this year and I was super excited to get a copy. It's dense and fast and over too fast. All four songs are great, raw thrash and if you at all like either of these bands - or want somewhere to start - this is a must-get.


Alter-ed States is my favorite of the bunch, but really, all four are totally bitchin' tracks guaranteed to get you stoked.

Municipal Waste - Hazardous Mutation (2005) LP Earache Records

Continuing on with my thrash-centric reviews, I thought it was about time I brought up Municipal Waste. Much like Toxic Holocaust, Municipal Waste is a band celebrating 1980's thrash, but borrowing more from the D.R.I. school of crossover (espicially Tony Foresta's vocals) with a healthy dose of reckless partying thrown in.

Hazardous Mutation is their first release on Earache and while more polished than their earlier efforts, is a lot less polished than their follow up, The Art Of Partying, which came out three years later. It's fast and fun, with some blazing riffs and serious speed. There are no keyboards, no sound effects, nothing to detract from the relentless pace of hardcore thrash and its awesome.


There are also very few stand-outs on the album for me, unlike The Art Of Partying, which has a ton of tracks I can name and wait for when I listen to that record. That being said, this album kills. Its dense and fun where many of their contemporaries seem to find it more important to be serious and hard, they get down with beer and thrash in equal measure andhow can you possibly not like that?

Overkill - !!!Fuck You!!! (1987) 12" EP Megaforce Worldwide

Overkill was a band on the periphery of my thrash favorites back in 1987 and one that my friends liked a bit more than I back in the day, especially as I started to tend towards raw sounds and more of a skate/thrash esthetic. Truth be told, the vocals took some getting use to with the high pitched squeals and soaring upper register, something I never truely dug back in the day.

That being said, Overkill is considered today one of the better thrash acts of the late 1980's and their back catalog is stocked with solid albums, with 1985's Feeling the Fire and 1988's Under The Influence being true classics of the genre.




!!!Fuck You!!! was  an EP released back in 1987 with the title song actually a cover of the Subhumans and the remaining four songs all from a live recording that sale year at The Phantasy Theatre in Cleveland, OH. It's tight and fast and once you get use to the vocals, its an excellent EP. It has been reissued with one extra track on CD (a live version of 'Fuck You') and its a great place to start if you want to check out one of the more operatic and fast bands to have graced the thrash scene from day one.

Extra Hot Sauce - Taco Of Death (1988) LP Peaceville Records

When I have a bummer day at work, this is one of the few records I liked to put on at work (via you tube) and listen to. It never fails to make me smile. Extra Hot Sauce is a thrash/crossover/grindcore band with a damn good sense of humor. They only released this album from what I can tell and were notable for their drummer, Dan Liker, who would later play bass with the fabled Nuclear Assault.

Pretty much every song here is offensive in a late-1980's kinda way, like the lyriks for AIDS which go:

AIDS/Who fucking cares?



Which is funny if you are into offensive and massively irreverant humor, but no so much if you are thin-skinned.



They also cover a slew of songs, most notably 'Communication Breakdown' by Zeppelin - in a bit over a minute. It's pretty much unreconizable, but its still damn funny and I laugh ever time I hear it. Their cover of Sabbath's 'Paranoid' is way less thrashy and fast - at least for the intro. Then it speeds up with blast beats and its just awesome.

This was a record I really had to argue myself into getting as I tend to stay away from this kind of fringe joke band stuff, especially hard-to-find records that command big money. This was found on the cheap on eBay and I snagged it happily. It's an interesting release in the pantheon of late 1980's thrash and one that you could easily see inspiring modern thrash bands like Municipal Waste.

Iron Maiden - In Concert - 773 (1993) LP BBC Transcription Service

My understanding of this LP is that the BBC makes its archived recordings available to buy for other commercial radio stations. Iron Maiden has two such recordings from what I can find, this, the 773 disc, and an earlier 669 recording. I picked it up from Reckless here in Chicago and its looks legit enough to me, but the music is what really matters.

It's an awesome live show, recorded in Holland and from what I can tell, during the "Fear Of The Dark Tour" in 1992, Bruce Dickenson's second to last tour with Maiden. The set list is amazing, comprising the best of the later part of Maiden's catalog, including "Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter," "Can I Play With Madness?," "Heaven Can Wait" and "Fear Of The Dark."

I'm a huge Maiden fan and have listened to the entire Dickenson catalog many, many times. I haven't posted anything up here as I only have cassettes and CD's of the catalog, save for this lone, LP release.

And its a killer one at that. This was probably Bruce's last great tour with the band as the 1993 tour saw him having already announced his leaving the band. Those dates had to be bittersweet for all involved, especially as bassist Steve Harris said he thought Dickenson was phoning it in on more than a few occasions.

What blew me away here is the relentless energy Maiden has live, how crushingly they perform every song. Totally professional at every turn. The mix is damn near perfect - way better than the Rock in Rio live release which has the guitars way back in the mix and the bass up front.

As far as I can tell, there is no other official release of these recordings beyond what I have here, which is a bit of a bummer as this LP is fantastic. I've had it on the turntable for the past month at least once a day.

Reckless is in the process of tracking down a copy of the 669 recording for me and I'll hopefully post about that when it arrives. As it is, there doesn't seem to be any youtube clips of the music from this one, so here is "Sanctuary" from another date in 1992. Long live Maiden!

Destruction - Live Without Sense (1989) LP Noise International

The first time I heard 'Mad Butcher', I was pretty blown away and that set one track sold me on their entire catalog. Back in 1989, I bought this live record (on cassette, which has been lost to the ravages of time) and couldn't listen to it enough.

In the late 1980's, thrash and metal records had a tendency to be very, very treble heavy and bass seemed relegated to the way background. Most Destruction records suffered from this pretty badly, though the highlight of the band has always been the technical guitar playing anyway. This live record has a fantastic mix and the bass comes out, giving this release a punch lacking in a lot of their studio LP's.



There are a ton of highlights to this record - "Curse The Gods" and "Thrash Attack" being my favorties, but "Mad Butcher" is awesome here with a long into and crowd going nuts - you can almost feel the air cycling out of the pit way back in '89.



Considered one of the best technical metal bands back in the day along side Kreator, Destruction is two parts thrash to one part technical virtuosity and the later really makes the thrash part hit hard. I wouldn't consider them a technical band, more a thrash band with some really good guitar work. The vocals can be a hit or miss for some with the high-pitched squeals on "Curse..." and others. But really, if you listen to "Mad Butcher" and don't dig the band totally, the vocals won't change your mind one way or other other.

There are so many great early thrash bands, but Destruction still seems a cut above the rest, a rare treat for fans of technical metal and thrash.

Toxic Holocaust - Hell On Earth (2005) LP Relapse Records

Toxic Holocaust are one of the few recent thrash bands who get it right - stripped down, immediate thrash, without bells and whistles, without anything added to the mix. It's not modern thrash - it's late 1980's thrash made in 2005.

I saw Toxic Holocaust open for The Possessed and by the time their set was over, I was rushing to the merch booth to pick stuff up - only to find they had packed it up as nothing was selling. I think if they stayed open for longer, they would have found a lot of new fans clamoring for gear.

After the show, I bought every one of their records and was blown away to find that Toxic Holocaust is one guy - Joel Grind, who, at least on the first few records, played all the instruments and recorded the album by himself.




Every song on Hell On Earth is great - raw, unfettered thrash. No pretense. If you like this one track, you'll like the whole catalog of what Joel and Toxic Holocaust has done, I absolutely guarantee it. Plus, cover art by Ed Repka? You know this has to be good.

Return To Forever - Hymn Of The Seventh Galaxy (1973) LP Polydor

I grew up with a lot of Jazz-Fusion in the house - Jeff Lorber et al - and as a youngster into '80's pop and then '80's hip-hop and late '80's metal, the Jazz-Fusion thing didn't really take my by storm. As it was, it was my dad's music and our relationship when I was a kid was strained. I was a difficult kid and my dad was a difficult guy and we were naturally adversarial. It wasn't until my mid-twenties that we started to reconnect - after I had done a good bit of growing up.

He bought me The Jeff Lorber Collection on CD and so many of the tracks brought back memories of a comfortable house and what I have come to call 'cerebral Sundays' - ones you spend reflecting and thinking rather than late brunch and drinking. Not that its a religion or anything, but I like Sundays to be about chilling hard and reflecting. And West Wing episodes at night.

I bought quite a few Jeff Lorber and Westher Report records over the years and only recently started listening to fusion on Sundays again with Linda when we are zipping around town doing errands and drinking coffee.

Chick Corea featured on some Lorber recordings (most notably Soft Space) and was the main reason I started to look at Return To Forever. I picked up a few records, but this, their third album has easily become my favorite.

It's more Jazz-Rock and Funk than true Fusion, but whatever you term it, it's fantastic. The songs are well-crafted and driving, moody without being too demanding like many Weather Report songs (heavy horn stabs, fast-paced solos) and have a cool kind of space-rock-jazz thing happening, like Hawkwind-meets-jazz.


The titular track is one of the best on the album and has a heavy prog element and tremendous playing. The tone and sound of the guitar and bass on this track have that late 1960's feel - fuzzy, heavy with that distinct electric organ pulse.

Most of the other tracks on the record are a bit more laid back and mello, especially the last two on the record, 'Space Circus Parts 1 & 2' and 'The Game Maker', which does pick up at the end.

Like most Jazz-Fusion, this record can be found on the cheap and this one was bought at Dusty Groove here in Chicago, along with quite a few other fusion records on the same trip. Get some coffee and chill hard with this one.