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.

A Catalogue Of Destruction

Outside of the Metal Massacre series, I've never really been interested in collecting older Metal comps...but after Doug started talking up the Speed Kills records, and I grabbed a copy of the first one earlier this year, I thought that it might be fun to casually chase the rest of them.

While I wasn't exactly in a rush to pick up more from the Speed Metal series, I was pretty damn excited to find a copy of record number three at a local record store. I mean I never would have expected to find a copy in the wild, it a small little used record store in Portland, Maine. Of all the things to stumble across while flipping through the racks, I would have never guessed that this would be it.

Released in 1987, Speed Kills III contains another roster of great thrash bands from the day. Most of the stuff, like Possessed, Death Angel, Nuclear Assault and Dark Angel, I was already familiar with, but there were a couple of bands like English Dogs and Sacrilege that I'd never heard before...so it was funny to finally be introduced to them on a comp that is over 30 years old.

I love the comments for each band. Sorry, I still don't understand the attraction to Bathory.

Speed Kills

While they certainly served their purpose at the time, I find most compilations to be utterly useless these days. Unless they contain some serious exclusive tracks, I've go no interest in them.

I was recently having a conversation with Doug, and he was quite excited about his Speed Kills collection. I'd never heard of it, but apparently it was a compilation series that Music For Nations/Under One Flag released from the mid-80's to early 90's. How this never entered my radar in the 80's is beyond me...maybe it was more of a European thing, and in the States, I was more focused on Metal Blade's Metal Massacre series. Either way, Doug kind of rubbed off on me, and soon I was checking to see if maybe I should check them out for the sake of nostalgia.

I came across a copy on eBay listed with a 99 cent start price. The seller did not invoke a lot of confidence with their listing.

I know absolutely nothing about records
So im selling them as untested (or as-is)
Have no way to test so please look at pictures
WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET THANK YOU
May contain scratches rips ect.

I rolled the dice, threw a low bid on it, and won the record for $5.00. Thankfully it paid off, and the record sounds great.

It was a lot of fun ripping through the songs on this record. Sure, I was already familiar with most of these songs...although the exclusive track from Exciter was a nice surprise...and even though I don't know how often I'll really pull this out for a spin, it is really cool to have this record in the collection. Of course I'm going to have to track down Speed Kills II through VII at some point as well.