Wolf God

Anytime that Grand Magus release a new album, you can pretty much guarantee that it is going to make my Top 10 list for the year. The band plays that straight forward, traditional metal sound that will hook me in every damn time.

Grand Magus give us more of the same with their ninth album, Wolf God...but I really like this groove that they have been in with their last few records, so I'm not complaining. They have a sound, and they haven't strayed far from it with their last few albums, so at this point you know what you are going to get. No surprises, just some killer Manowar influenced metal!

Blue vinyl is limited to 300 copies. The same number were pressed for both red and yellow, but for me, blue was the way to go here.

Long Live The Lewd

Ryan Waste has the midas touch, and everything the dude does is absolute gold. Municipal Waste, Volture, the short lived youtube channel for Living Fast (well, that first episode was great anyway), and obviously his latest band, Bat.

It has been a few years since the Wings Of Chains LP, so I was eager for the latest EP from the band. As soon as preorders went up for Axestasy, I was in the Hells Headbangers store to get the limited colored vinyl option. I've done pretty well and scored the limited vinyl pressing for the last couple of Bat records, so I didn't want to fuck up and break the streak with this one. Mission accomplished.

500 pressed on bone colored vinyl.

Hell yes. Bat keep the Venom vibe going strong with this EP. Rock fucking solid.

Call Of The Wild

I've been having a blast checking out some of those old 80's hair metal records that I ignored the first time around...and revisiting some long forgotten classics. That's the headspace that I've been in for a while now, and when I was checking out some vinyl community videos on youtube recently, someone mentioned the band Circus Of Power. I'd never heard of them before, but since I was hungry to discover some long lost bands from that era, I quickly dug up a download of the band's first album to check it out.

No exaggeration...I fucking love this record. After downloading it, I queued it up for some morning four mile runs, and it quickly had it's hooks in me. This was not the hair metal that I was expecting...no light weight pop metal here...it has more of that late 80's sleazy dirty blues sound, which hits all the right buttons for me. I was floored with how great these songs were, and it has easily become the most listened record for me so far this year.

Finding a seller that had this available, still in the plastic wrap with the hype sticker, for about $6 made my year. Definitely a long lost treasure.

Metal Traveler

Earlier this year, I picked up the Trapped Under Ice compilation which featured a bunch of new Canadian metal bands. I hadn't heard the majority of the bands on that comp, and some of them were really quite good. It fired me up to buy some records for newer bands, and one of the first that I rushed to check out was the new album from Traveler.

Traveler had the first track on the Trapped Under Ice comp, and their song Betrayer really set the tone. That is a killer song, and was really looking forward to their new album that was due out this year.

Overall, this is really a solid first album from the band. There are some good songs here, but it kind of runs out of steam by the end. Hopefully they keep at it, because I'll be paying attention if they release a follow up at some point.

No colored vinyl option here. You'll take black vinyl and you'll like it!

The Mayhem Continues...

While I haven't been that interested in compilations in the past, I've kind of come around to some of them in recent years. The Metal Massacre series have always captured my attention, but lately I've been interested in old New Wave Of British Heavy Metal comps, and I've also added the Speed Kills series to the list of compilations that I want in my collection.

When I was picking up a few records from an overseas seller on Discogs, I noticed that they had Speed Kills II available, and I quickly added it to the growing number of records in my cart.

I already own volume I and III in the Speed Kills series, so it felt good to fill the hole where number two would be.

Volume I and III were both filled with some big time thrash names. Number one had all the heavy hitters, with Metallica, Slayer, Celtic Frost, Venom and Megadeth...and even number three had Death, Possessed, Death Angel and Nuclear Assault...but number two in the series seems to have more of an underground vibe with Anthrax being the only big name on here (although I guess you could make a case for Sodom and Helloween). There were just more bands that I'd never heard before, like Living Death, Iron Angel and Brainfever...plus lesser known bands like Razor and Whiplash, and it kind of makes this one feel a bit more special.

Like the other two Speed Kills records that I own, I love the charm and character of the summary for each band.

Hide In The Rainbow

I was already picking up a couple of records from an overseas seller, so I checked to see what else they may have available. More Dio vinyl? Fuck yes.

The major selling point for this 12 inch EP is the song Hide In The Rainbow. The song never appeared on a regular Dio full length album, so it wasn't until around 2011 that I even discovered that it existed. The song is an absolute killer, and released in '86, it definitely fits the sound from those classic Dio years. It blows my mind that this song is such a hidden gem, and that it took me so long to hear it. As a single-only release, I wonder how many other people had this song fly under the radar as well.

Four songs...Hide In The Rainbow, plus one song from each album to that point in the band's career. UK only release.

Thirty Years Older... 1989

I love reconnecting with older albums that I'd long forgotten about. Some albums end up getting pushed aside to collect dust at the back of the collection, and it feels like you'll never need to listen to it again...but then somehow that album ends up on your radar, and it sinks its fucking hooks into you and won't let go.

While I enjoyed Gang Green through the late 80's and saw them open for Social Distortion at The Living Room in Providence...getting kicked out of the club for stagediving when Gang Green played Another Wasted Night)...as we moved through the 90's, I kind of wrote off those crossover albums from the band. A couple of years ago, I was reminded just how good You Got It was when I was reviewing my 1987 playlist, and the same kind of thing happened this year when I queued up the Older... Budweiser album from '89.

I was surprised by just how much I loved revisiting this record. So much fun...and one of my favorite rediscoveries from 1989.

Initially, when I was recently looking to buy a copy, I picked one up from a US seller for a good price, however, when the record arrived, I didn't think it was worth the VG+ rating that the seller had given it. I was disappointed with the condition, and the seller was cool with it, and refunded the money provided that I send it back to him. Man, I don't usually complain about the condition of records that I buy, and letting it go was a tough call, but I immediately was on the hunt for another copy, and found an overseas seller with a bunch of cool shit available, so I loaded up my cart, and soon had my hands on a nice looking copy...which included a cool merchandise insert. Good deal.

Riding With Samson

Before Bruce Dickinson joined Iron Maiden late in '81, he was the man behind the mic for Samson. They were a pretty big deal in the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal scene at the time, and recorded a couple of albums with "Bruce Bruce" before he split for bigger stages with Maiden. Still those early Samson albums are a good time, and I can't believe that I still don't own them.

I've been obsessing over NWOBHM records a bit this year, specifically the singles from that period, and so when I saw this 7 inch for Samson, I figured that I'd it was a good time to finally add a piece of Samson vinyl to the collection. I wouldn't normally go for a picture disc, but since the regular 7 inch pressing didn't come with a picture sleeve, I guess the picture disk is the most attractive option.

I'm all about the exclusive b-side song on singles, and Little Big Man from Samson is a killer. I'm glad that I finally found this long lost song. Now maybe I will finally get off my ass and pick up those Dickinson-era Samson albums!

Total Addiction

After reading the story of Noise Records, Damn The Machine, a couple of years ago, it dawned on me that in addition to collecting original pressings for Metal Blade, Megaforce and Combat, I needed to round out the Big 4 for 80's metal record labels, and add Noise to the list. I've slowly been adding those original Noise records to the collection, and when I was grabbing Kreator's Extreme Aggression from a German seller on Discogs, I figured that I'd check to see if he had anything else from the Noise label.

While I've got the straight edge, and find absolutely nothing appealing about drinking and beer culture, I do love thrash metal, and even though just about every song from Tankard's Chemical Invasion album is about beer and getting drunk, I still can't resist headbanging like a maniac to this record. Chemical Invasion was Tankard's second album, and back in the 80's, I loved everything from the Zombie Attack debut, straight through to the Alien EP. I lost track of Tankard by the time they released The Meaning Of Life back in 1990, so there is a large chunk of their discography that I really haven't heard. I might have to remedy that soon!

I still have a long way to go with my Noise collection, but I'm slowly getting there. Hopefully I can keep making some steady progress because the label has so many metal classics that I need to get my hands on.

1989 Aggression

As excited as I've been for some of the recent new releases, I really just want to hangout in my 1989 playlist, so I'm happy to get back to my mission of picking up albums from that year.

One of my favorite metal albums from '89 is Extreme Aggression by Kreator. Holy shit. As an 18/19 years old kid, this album ruled my world. It was so fucking angry and fast, and as I was starting my first year of college and feeling more out of place and awkward than ever, it fit my teenage world perfectly. From start to finish, this record just continues to assault you, never letting up.

When I started looking at my playlist for 1989, and saw this Kreator album slugging it out with Sepultura's Beneath The Remains and Overkill's The Years Of Decay for the top spot, I knew that I needed to make a move and grab this record. When I started checking Discogs to see what was available, I knew that I needed to chase an original German Noise pressing. There was something about those US Epic that looked totally out of place and awkward. The Noise labels are where it's at.