Don't Break Melissa's Oath

I loved collecting the silver label Megaforce and green label Combat records. I've knocked off a number of the bigger ones, but Mercyful Fate has always felt a bit intimidating to chase. Having the chance to pick of both of them from Tim's collection was too good to pass up.

The first Mercyful Fate album, Melissa, was originally released on Roadrunner over in Europe, but got a US release through Megaforce here in the States. It was the third Megaforce album release and has those great and collectible silver labels. I now have the the first eight Megaforce albums with the silver labels, which includes some heavy hitters like Anthrax, Exciter, Raven and the first two Metallica albums... so I'm feeling really good about adding this Mercyful Fate record to the collection.

I sometimes forget, or overlook, these Mercyful Fate records. I love King Diamond's vocals here, but I tend to reach for bands that are a bit more gritty in their sound when I want to listen to that early 80's thrash sound. Picking up these two records has reminded me just how great they are.

The second Mercyful Fate album, Don't Break The Oath, also saw a Roadrunner release over in Europe, but this time Combat handled the US pressing. Combat didn't really have an impressive track record up to this point, with releases from Oz, TKO and Helstar, so I imagine getting the rights to release this Mercyful Fate record was a huge win for the label, and maybe helped them land bands like Megadeth and Slayer soon after.

Now that I have these two albums, it kind of makes me want to finally put up the money it would take to grab the first Mercyful Fate EP. That's going to be an expensive move, so we will see when I can pull that off.

Killing Technology

The chain of influence continues. Early this year I posted about an Overkill record that I was excited to pick up, and that led me to rush out and pick up a Powermad album. After writing that post, I hit the ground running to chase down Voivod's Killing Technology. There is just something about picking up those old 80's metal records that hits like nothing else.

I've struggled with a number of problems from Discogs sellers earlier this year. A few times I've ordered a specific colored vinyl version, only to receive a regular black vinyl copy in the mail, and problems struck again with Killing Technology. I really wanted to own an original Noise pressing out of Germany for this record. I don't know... the album was released on Noise, so I wasn't too interested in a US imprint pressing through Combat Records. So when I found a US seller with a listing for the German Noise pressing at a decent price, I jumped on it. Too good to be true and they actually sent me the US pressing... plus it had a promo hole punched into the cover. Fuck. At least the seller was very accomodating and gave me a full refund, apologized and told me to keep the record. I'll take a free record, even if it wasn't the pressing that I was intially looking for.

Man, this album is so killer. Front to back, Killing Technology is loaded with classic Voivod thrash songs. Listening to this album today and now I'm thinking that I want to listen to it everyday. Man, I've been wanting to have this record on my shelf for a long time now, and it feels so good to own a copy (even if it isn't a German Noise press).

Combat Amnesty

I don't really expect to find anything cool when I step into one of Portland's few used record shops. I mean, if you are looking for that Huey Lewis And The News album, they will probably have you covered, but chances are slim for them to have some obscure 80's metal record that will have me scooping it up and heading to the check-out counter. So it was with great surprise that I found a copy of the first Zoetrope album, Amnesty, in the racks when I ducked into Moody Lords one weekend.

While Zoetrope were an 80's speed metal band, I never bothered to check them out at the time. I don't expect that their cassette showed up too often at the Mall where I was shopping back in 1985, but even if it was, the odd band name may have made me a bit hesitant to buy it. Years later, I heard their song on the Metal Massacre 4 comp, but I still didn't bother to check out anything else from the band until 2020. Crazy that it took me 35 years to finally give this band a serious listen, and man, I was missing out. Amnesty is a damn solid record of 80's metal.

The craziest part of this story is that this album was still sealed. Insane that I was the first one to break the cellophane wrap and drop the needle on this record. Man, it gave me chills to see that green Combat label when I pulled it out of the record sleeve. Classic.

Horror Epics

At the start of each year, I like to try and come up with a loose idea of the direction that I want to take my record collection over the next 12 months. It is never a really solid plan, as the slightest thing can blow it off course, but it is fun to fool myself into temporarily thinking that I have it all together and know what I'm doing.

This year, in addition to a slight New Wave Of British Heavy Metal obsession, I'm really trying to keep my focus on those classic records that I grew up with in the 80's. Those albums that I'd either picked up on CD or cassette back in the day, but now I need them in my record collection.

While the Horror Epics album from The Exploited may not qualify as a classic to some people, but man, everything that The Exploited did through the 80's was in constant rotation for me. As an angry teen, I had even taken the song title for I Hate You and I carved it into the dust and road dirt along the side of my car. Plus, there was just something about being an American and singing "Maggie, you cunt" so that you can pretend that you have a grasp of world politics. There is no emotion as pure as teen angst.

Five years ago, something triggered me to put the Combat pressing for Horror Epics on my Discogs Wantlist. I was chasing a bunch of singles for The Exploited at the time, and this Horror Epics pressing must have caught my eye and excited me enough to add it to the wantlist. Funny enough, I haven't listend to a single song from the album since then...which is a pretty good indication as to how deep things can get buried once I lose focus and start chasing other things. I grabbed a copy for a decent price recently, and when it arrived I was surprised to find myself pretty fucking excited to listen to it. The album isn't on Spotify, so it hadn't been easily available for me to give the songs a spin. I'd forgotten completely what some of these songs sounded like and I got a charge out of revisiting this one. Very happy to finally own a copy.

Night Of The Blade

Tokyo Blade are one of those bands where I have a hard time getting my head around where they are from. See, in my brain I always think that the band was from California along with the other early Metal Blade bands. I mean, I feel like the band would have fit in nicely on the first Metal Massacre compilation, and therefore my first instinct is to think of them as an early American Heavy Metal band alongside the likes of Armored Saint and Lizzy Borden. But that is wrong. Tokyo Blade were from Salisbury in England, so they are obviously a New Wave Of British Heavy Metal band...and while it wasn't planned as a part of my NWOBHM Chase of 2022, it still fits the bill so we are counting it towards my goal for the year.

While I was aware of the Tokyo Blade name as a kid, I don't think that I ever heard any of their records at the time. I'm pretty sure that my exposure was limited to the song Lightning Strikes from the Banzai Axe comp. I downloaded a few of the bands early records about 15 years ago, and I'd give them a casual listen here and there over the years, but I never really invested myself too deeply into them. Last year, however, the Night Of The Blade record hit me hard and I listened to that thing a lot. I couldn't get enough of it. When I saw a copy on Discogs at a very reasonable price I jumped on it.

Since Tokyo Blade is a NWOBHM band, I was tempted to go for the original UK pressing on Powerstation Records, but with my obsession over the green Combat labels, that was obviously the only way that I was going to go here.

Combat Frost

I'd spent a lot of time and money with a bunch of newer releases the past couple of months, and it felt like it had been a while since I'd bothered chasing a big target classic record. New releases are cool and fun to pick up, but man, there is no thrill like buying a record that is over 30 years old.

I've got Emperor's Return from Celtic Frost on my Top Wants list for this year, and that's the one that I should have been targeting, but when I saw the green Combat Records labels for To Mega Therion, I couldn't walk away. They don't show up on Discogs very often, and when one popped up where the seller wasn't asking a ridiculous price for it, I fired off a quick message to ask if he could email me a few photos...mostly because I wanted to confirm it didn't have the Combat camo labels, but I also wanted to make sure it was in good condition. Everything worked out, and I quickly added it to my cart.

From the H.R. Giger artwork, to the insanely heavy songs within, this album absolutely crushes. A definite classic, and one that I'm happy to finally own.

Green Combat Labels Are Calling

I love those green label pressings for Combat Records, and while I've been slow to hunt them down, it is still very exciting when I finally add another one to the collection.

The first couple of Savatage records are some of my favorite metal albums of all time, so it is crazy that it has take me this long to finally get my hands on a copy of The Dungeons Are Calling. This six song EP is fucking perfect from start to finish, and with the record 35 years old, it is amazing how much I still get a charge when listening to this.

Picked this up off Discogs, and after seeing a bunch of copies listed with ringwear or a promo cut, once I saw this one listed with the cover described as "near perfect" I didn't hesitate to grab it for myself.

Possessed At Armageddon

After trading a couple of records in Boston Common, Marcus was looking forward to checking out the Armageddon Shop in Harvard Square. I was happy to oblige, and we grabbed a ride through Uber and were there in no time.

Having visited the Armageddon Shop a few months earlier with Sandwell, I was curious if the store would have anything interesting available this time around. I mean, it is a cool store, but they mostly carried new releases and reissues, and there wasn't a huge selection of used records. Surprisingly, I walked out of there with more records than I expected.

The first record that I pulled from the bins was Venom's Possessed album. This record takes a pretty solid drop in quality from the first three Venom records, but there are still some great song here, and Possessed marks the end of band's classic period.

I already owned the Earmark reissue from 2002...which I'd picked up early in my record collecting career, but it was not really cutting it for me anymore, and I was hoping to replace it with an original UK Neat pressing at some point. While this copy isn't on the Neat label, as soon as I pulled the vinyl from the sleeve and saw the green Combat labels, I knew I was going to have to buy it, and with a $15 price tag, it was an easy purchase.

Possessed By 1987

During my time travelling back to 1987, I obsessed over a lot of different albums, but one of them received more plays than any other...The Eyes Of Horror by Possessed.

This 19 minute EP absolutely destroys with it's all out Thrash attack. From start to finish, this record does not let up. Even now, after some time has passed since my 1987 spending spree, I still can't stop spinning this.

Combat had stopped using the green labels sometime in '86, so by the time The Eyes Of Horror was released, they had switched over to the camo ones. While I really want to focus on collecting those green label pressings, it still feels good to cross an original Combat pressing off the list.

Don't Panic, I'm Still In 1987

There were a lot of great albums released in '87, but as I was going through the process of listening to everything that was released that year, I found a few gems that I'd forgotten just how good they were.

No Need To Panic might not be on the same level as the first few G.B.H. records, but I was all about this album when I picked it up as a seventeen year old kid. I was heavily into metal and thrash at the time, but punk was starting to work its way into my world bit by bit. The songs were still fast and catchy as hell, but it was somehow even more stripped down and raw when compared to my thrash records. To me, the two genres fit together perfectly, and it made perfect sense to place my G.B.H. cassette right alongside the latest from Grim Reaper. There were no lines drawn...for me, they both just fell under the umbrella of "good shit".

I listened to this album so many times over the summer, I knew that I had to track down a copy on vinyl. I wasn't fussed to track down a UK copy for this one, and the Combat pressing was good enough for me.

Record Collecting Is My Business...

I've had Megadeth's Killing Is My Business on my Want List for a long time. Years ago, I set my eBay profile to alert me whenever a copy became available. My email inbox saw countless notifications, and I ignored most of them. The record seemed to show up pretty regularly, so I figured there was no rush, and I kept putting off buying a copy. Then, at the start of last year, I posted my Top 10 Wants In 2016 here on the blog. I thought that if I published it here, it would keep it at the forefront of my mind, and it would motivate me to finally cross it off my list. No dice. I didn't make anymore headway on it than years past.

I vowed that 2017 was going to be different. While I only crossed one record off my Top 10 Want List in 2016, I committed myself to doing better this year. With some cash in my Paypal account from recently selling off some records, I figured that it was time to finally make a move on the first Megadeth record.

One of the things that made an original pressing of Killing Is My Business so attractive, was that it is really the only place that you are going to get their cover version of These Boots. Seems that Lee Hazelwood wasn't too impressed with Mustaine's interpretation, and forbid them from ever releasing it again. Too bad...Megadeth's version is great.

I fucking love those green Combat labels. I want them all. When looking to buy a copy of Killing Is My Business, this was really the only way to go. Man, this thing is in amazing condition for a record that over 30 years old.

One of the reasons that I paid a bit more for my copy of this record was that it included the original merchandise order form. Gotta have it for the Metal history!

Venom's American Assault

A few months ago, the wife and I took a weeks vacation to hang out in South Carolina and celebrate our 20th anniversary. We left the kids behind, and took off for some much needed relaxation in Charleston. Being in a new city, I was itching to find a local record store, and on our last day there I was able to scratch it with Earshot Records. There is nothing like finding a new record store, I was hot to check out what they had to offer.

I've mentioned here, that I've been on a mission to collect original pressings of Metal records, and when I walked into the store, I immediately headed to the used vinyl bin. They had a few things that caught my eye, but as soon as I saw Venom's American Assault, I knew that it was coming home with me.

The album itself offered nothing new when it was released in 1985...three previous released studio tracks on one side, and on the other, three live songs recorded from a gig in Hammersmith. Still, I've been wanting to build up my Venom collection, so I took the opportunity to do so.