Celtic Tales

The majority of my Celtic Frost collection has been pulled from Tim, so it only made sense to pick up the first record, Morbid Tales, from him as well.

Celtic Frost were never really a big band for me while growing up. I liked them, but they were a bit too raw and rough for my thrash tastes and it seems that I rarely reached for them. Listing to Morbid Tales this week as I was thinking about writing this blog post, and I have to say that I appreciate this band much more today.

The black and white photos decked out in bullet belts and studded armbands, the touch of red lettering and the text style makes this back cover especially cool. Such a good look.

While this copy doesn't include the poster that is mentioned on the front cover, it does however include a promo sheet and photo card that has the band's signatures on the back. I'm not sure what the story is on this. I don't know if Tim picked it up this way, or if he saw the band and had them sign the card himself, but either way it is cool to own.

Coroner Noise

Back in 2017, I was excited to pick up an original German pressing for the Punishment For Decadence album from Coroner. I was pretty excited at the prospect of chasing down a bunch of other German Noise pressings, and even added a few more over the following years... but the mission ran out of steam and it feels like I had lost that spark to chase original pressings for old metal records. Going through Tim's collection and picking up some 80's metal vinyl has kind of reinvigorated me on that, but the only problem has been that Tim was mostly picking up US versions at the time... which leaves me in kind of a bind since I prefer to buy UK/European pressings for UK/European bands. So I'm forced between immediate satisfaction in settling for an available US pressing from Tim's collection, or deciding to hold out for the pressing that I really want. Unfortunately I'm an immediate satisfaction bitch.

Coroner was a technical thrash metal band out of Switzerland, and back in the day I picked up three of their CDs. I remembered really liking Punishment For Decadence, but with R.I.P. (1987) and No More Color (1989), I don't remember giving those albums much playing time. I remember a few years back, my old blogger friend Lins told me that I really need to go back and check out R.I.P. again, and when I saw it in Tim's collection, I figured that the time was now.

I'm so glad that I was pushed to finally check out this album again. These songs are so good. I kind of get why 17 year old Mike didn't give this a lot of spins, as he was being bombarded with so much great thrash at the time, but this kind of rough and complex metal suits me well in 2025 and I'm loving listening to this. Shame about those white US Noise center labels though. The German pressing looks so much better!

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).

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.

Another Dimension

Back in 2017, I found myself on a mission to pick up a bunch of records that were hitting their 30th anniversary that year, and I went on a 1987 shopping spree. During that time, I knocked off some big time records from my Want List, and it was a ton of fun immersing myself in the playlist from that year.

As Summer was winding down last year, it dawned on me that I'd forgotten all about carrying that theme over to 2018, and chasing records from 1988.

In September, I tried to kick start things for a 1988 obsession, and I grabbed a copy of Voivod's Dimension Hatross record. Unfortunately, I couldn't get that mindset to stick, and this ended up being the only album I was able to cross off the list. Overall, I just couldn't stay focused, and my attention kept getting pulled towards the '83 and '84 years when I really first started to get into metal. Sorry 1988, you got a bad deal...I'm hoping that 1989 has better luck this year.

I've been wanting to finally grab this record for years, and there have been times that I'd get hooked on just listening to these songs on repeat. This is easily my favorite Voivod album, so if I had to pick one record from 1988, I'm glad that this was the one that I picked up.

Original German Noise pressing, with the insert for The Voivod Story.

Keeper Of 1987

Last month, I got a little obsessive when it came to 1987. I had a pretty solid 7 post streak here on the blog for some absolute classic Metal and Crossover albums from that year. It was a good run, but eventually I moved on and started chasing other records on my Want List. Then, as I was picking up a piece of vinyl for a German seller on Discogs, I saw he also had Helloween album from '87 available, and I easily fell back into the train of thought of "just one more".

Earlier in the year, I read the Damn The Machine book, and of course it triggered a minor obsession with the bands from the Noise label. I'd picked up a couple records, but didn't nearly get in as deep as I'd wanted, so with the fire for '87 still burning, I figured that I'd scratch the itch for both with this pressing for Keeper Of The Seven Keys, Part I.

Get out of here with your lame US pressing...I had to go for the European pressing with the gatefold sleeve.

Oddly enough, I completely skipped this record as a kid...even though I did buy Part II on CD. I'm not sure how I missed this one...although I can see it getting lost in the noise that the US thrash bands were making that year...but still, this album has aged very well for me (or maybe I've just been on a Power Metal kick the last couple of years), but either way, this album is all kinds of great.

Storming Through 1987 With Menace

Even though I was on a strong Crossover kick while revisiting my 1987 playlist, let's not forget that Thrash was a fucking force to be reckoned with as well. So many great albums were released that year that it was easy to get caught up in my obsession to buy one after another.

Over the Summer, I read the Damn The Machine book, which documents the detailed history of Noise Records...and it should be of no surprise to anyone that this fueled a minor obsession with the label. Noise released a lot of classic Thrash albums, and I spent a lot of my Summer playing those over and over again.

While reviewing my 1987 playlist recently, Kreator's Terrible Certainty shot right to the top of the list. In my effort to cross those top records off my Want List, I set my sights on finally picking up the vinyl.

When I started checking Discogs for a copy, and I discovered that Noise did a red vinyl pressing, I knew that was the way to go.

Calling The Coroner

When it comes to Metal records, there have been a few labels that I've entertained the idea of chasing...silver label Megaforce and green label Combat top that list. Now we can add the Noise Record label as well.

While I've always enjoyed the bands on the Noise roster, for one reason or another, I've just never been enticed to collect them...until I started reading Damn The Machine, the story of Noise Records. Suddenly, I found myself dusting off those old Running Wild and Kreator CDs, obsessing over Celtic Frost, and downloading stuff that I'd never heard like Hellhammer and Warrant. I couldn't get enough of those Noise bands.

As I was spinning a Noise playlist, and hunting for vinyl on discogs, I came across the original German pressing of Coroner's Punishment For Decadence record. Instead of the cover image of a skeleton playing the violin that I was familiar with, instead we get this twisted mass of bodies that was a piece of The Gates Of Hell sculpture. Having never seen this original cover before, I had an immediate need to get my hands on a copy.

Punishment For Decadence is an underrated classic. I didn't fully appreciate it at the time, when it was originally released in '88, but this album as certainly held up over the years, as I've been listening to it day after day during this Noise obsession.

I love inserts that list the labels catalog to that point, and I can review and dream of which one I want to add to the collection next.