BUTT LOADS OF CDS! 12-01-12 through 01-24-13

GAZILIONS of cds so let's not dilly dally.

12-01-13

I had a bit of money left over on an amazon gift card so I purchased two albums to download. I know, I know, I not the biggest fan of downloading music but I couldn't find these bands physical albums anywhere else.

Unleash the Archers - "Demons of the Astrowaste" At first I loved this album, thought it was the best thing since sliced bread, and I like bread. However, listening to it over and over it begins to lose it's luster. The girl who sings has a good set of pipes and the instrumentation is decent but it gets boring after a few listens. You just have to be in the mood for a quick metal fix to enjoy this.

                                                                         
Outworld - "Outworld" Of course this band only put this record out before breaking up. Rusty Cooley is one of the fastest guitarists I've ever seen! However, here he's not all speed, he can actually play slow and amazingly well! Listening to this record at first I didn't really like it but upon a second and 3rd listen I am in love with this record. It's amazing progressive metal but more metal than prog. I think it's on the level of DT, it's just too bad they broke up. The vocalist may seem annoying at 1st but keep listening, it'll grow on you. Please, check this under rated album out!

                                                                 
12-23-12
 
Black Sabbath - "Mob Rules" The second Sabbath album with Dio on vocals. I freaking love this album but not as much as "Heaven and Hell". Every musician in this band is amazing.

                                                                                 
Rush - "Caress of Steel" I already had this one but I got it again for Christmas. Now I have one to listen to and one to never open.

Symphony X - "Twilight in Olympus" My second Symphony X cd and it's just as good if not as better than "Iconoclast". I really wish I could find more of this band's back catalog.

                                                                       
Megadeth - "Cryptic Writings" The last album with Marty on guitar and this album is certainly more main stream thrash than I'd prefer. It lacks the fast furious out of control Megadeth sound on "Rust" or "Peace Sells". There are a few good tracks but other than that it is kind of a yawn fest for me.

12-25-12

Paul Gilbert - "Get Out of My Yard" This is his all instrumental shred album. I just recently got into his stuff and I really like it. Not as much as Jeff Loomis' stuff but I still enjoy listening to it. I got this Christmas day, new, unopened, and as I put it on my computer to rip it says "No data available". As you can imagine I was irate and soon requested an replacement cd and sent my blank copy back to Amazon. I was surprised that I got an brand new cd from Amazon and it was blank, can you believe that? Luckily they sent one out right away and I was enjoying Paul's shredding abilities.

                                                                     
12-27-12 Journey to Half Priced Books

Well here's what you've all been waiting for, my new toy!

 That's right, I got a record player for $40. It's supposed to convert vinyl to mp3 so I thought, "Yea! I can get some old albums for cheaper than a cd and still put them on my Zune!" A red flag should have gone up when it said it used "Audacity" to convert to mp3. The sound quality from the conversion sounded worse than the vinyl. Now I'm sure there is a way to fix that in Audacity  but I do not have the knowledge to do that. I'd rather sit back and just listen to the vinyl play on the record player, that sound is actually quite nice and if I could find some RCA cables to connect to a pair of external speakers I'm sure the sound would be even better. For $40 it's not too bad because I can get a lot more diversity in my music by buying older more obscure albums, but if I want to listen to them on the go I still have to purchase the cd format.

YES - "YessongS" (vinyl) Basically the best of older YES live on a 3 record vinyl package.

YES - "Close to the Edge" (vinyl) my second favorite YES album so far.

Rush - "Permanent Waves" (vinyl) I still need to get this in cd format so I can listen to it mobile. Luckily I see it everywhere for $5.

Megadeth - "Youthanasia" 1994 release and I do believe it is first pressing! It's a mediocre Megadeth release in my opinion. Got to be the worst cover art though.

                             
Opeth - "Still Life" Found this for $8 and it came with a bonus dvd!

                                                                                                       

Nevermore - "Obsidian Conspiracy" Only picked this up to see what Jeff Loomis' guitar skills sounded like in this band. Not really impressed with this album. Jeff is still amazing but the vocalist really is hard for me to overcome.

Pink Floyd - "The Wall" Got the 2 disc format of this album. I know it's one of their best but for me it's my least favorite. I mean it's good but "Wish You Were Here" is way better.

12-28-12

Paul Gilbert - "Get Out of My Yard DVD" basically showing how to be like Gilbert....but that's just about impossible. It is kind of funny to watch it though, Paul is a goof ball.

Megadeth - "End Game" I seem to be having a lot of luck with Megadeth recently. Anyways, this album brings back that classic chaotic Megadeth sound they had back in the day. I really like this album. If you can find it cheap pick it up.

                                                           
Voivod - "War and Pain" My last Voivod purchase was a crap cd but this is their debut and not half bad. It's all out thrash like Metallica's "Kill 'em All" was.

12-29-12

Dream Theater - "When Day and Dream Unite" This is their first album that came out in 1989 without James LeBrie on vocals. On this record they had more of a Rush sound. Not a bad release for a debut if u ask me.

King Crimson - "In the Court of the Crimson King" 1969 prog for ya right here. Old, weird, and awesome. Just look at that cover!
                                                                                                                                                           
                                         
                                                             
12-31-12

Dream Theater - "Images and Words in Tokyo/Once in a Livetime DVD" a two disc collection of older live DT material.

01-03-13

Trivium - "In Waves" The release after the masterpiece called "Shogun" It's good but nowhere near as good as "Shogun"

                                                                               
Megadeth - "The System has Failed" This album clearly shows Megadeth has not failed. Its still didn't have the old Megadeth sound but it was slowly getting back to that sound.

Jimi Hendrix - "Band of Gypsies" A live recording at a new years eve party for 1969 to 70. I really like this record, it would have been one heck of a new years eve party to go to if I had the chance.

YES - "The YES Album" (vinyl) My favorite YES album. Its such a classic prog album I can't get tired of listening to it.

Rainbow - "Straight Bewteen the Eyes" (vinyl) This record came out 2 albums after Dio left but I got this album just to hear Blackmore's playing style.

01-08-13 Purchases from gift card

Death - "Symbolic" YES! I finally have this album in my collection. It's so good! I cannot encourage you enough to go buy it! If you like any Death at all you will LOVE this album. It has the 1st Death song I ever heard, "Zero Tolerance". This album is full of progressive styles and that's what makes Chuck's playing style stand out so much.

                                                       
Devin Townsend Project - "Epicloud" A very different release here. I got it because the songs I heard sounded good and this album was topping best of 2012 list everywhere. It's goos just not that good in my opinion. It's like a hard rock /pop album with a nice warm full sound.

Rainbow - "Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow" The first Raindbow record. Of course I ordered this one because it has Dio on vocals. I think I like this album just a little bit more than "Rising". The cover is kind of cheesy though.

                                                                       
                                                                           
Raindbow - "Rising" Second Rainbow record. It's pretty awesome and I think everyone's favorite is "Stargazer" because that track is epic. If you're looking for a classic 70s metal record look no further.

Sepultura - "Chaos A.D." Holy cow! This is some pretty kicking Brazilian thrash. This was the last album before they started using 7 strings. Not that 7 string guitars are bad but they lost their special sound they had here. If you can find this cheap enough get it!

                                                                           
Testament - "New Order" That's it, I have the 1st five albums with Skolnick. So happy to have these classic albums in my collection. The music here is amazing as usual, definitely some of their best work.

YES - "The Yes Album" Just so I could listen to it on the go.

YES - "Close to the Edge" Read the above reason

Yngwie Malmsteen - "Rising Force" 80's neo-classical shred metal. It has a nice soft feeling over the entire album making it a nice easy listening album.

01-11-13

Iron Maiden - "History of Iron Maiden: Part One" A very well done documentary up to the end of the "Piece of Mind" tour. It showed all the other members that were part of Maiden before the first record and there were a lot! Definitely something for a Maiden fan to pick up. I was lucky and found it for $7.

01-15-13

Opeth - "Blackwater Park" The break through release for Opeth. I got the special edtion with the making of and expanded art work. The music is exactly what you'd expect from Opeth, progressive death metal with a touch of jazz and folk.

                                                                       
01-18-13

Obituary - "Best of" Do I really need to add a description here?

Pink Floyd - "Animals" The record that came after "Wish You Were Here." It has that same set up as "Wish" with the long progressive songs I love. I'm sure I'll come to enjoy it more with each listen.

Wintersun - "Time I" Symphonic folk metal. This is some epic stuff but I think this was a little over hyped last year. What's funny are the pictures of the band in this booklet, they are European men making folk metal dressed in Japanese clothes. Maybe it's just me but I laughed when I saw it in the case.

                                                                           
01-09-13

In Flames - "The Colony" Probably their last good album with that classic death metal sound they used to produce. Once I get "The Whoreacle" I wont be getting anymore In Flames cds.

Kamelot -"Silverthron" If you read my last post you'll notice this was not on the list of albums I missed and that's because I wasn't really looking forward to this this album. It was a surprise to me when I found the deluxe box set for less than $20 and my local Best Buy. The box came with the cd, an all instrumental mix of the album, a poster, and a freakin hardback cover book telling the story of the "Silverthron" The music on this record was a lot better than I expected because I wasn't that big a fan of "Poetry for the Poisoned" or whatever it was called. I actually really enjoyed this album.

Lazarus A.D. - "Onslaught"  I'm not one to keep up on newer bands in the metal scene today (primarily because most of them blow). However, Lazarus is one of the few newer bands that don't fail! These guys have a neat thrash sound to them and the vocals aren't too bad either. They have some good riffs that keep bringing me back to this record. Definitely check these guys out.

                                                           
                                                                   
01-24-13

Chuck Schuldiner - "Zero Tolerance" Now we all know that Chuck was in the legendary band Death but as he got older he had a side project called "Control Denied". From what I read in this booklet the 1st four tracks were demos of the songs he planed on using for the Control Denied record. Unfortunately Chuck was taken before the Control Denied project could come to fruition. Chuck said that the material he was working on for this band would have been on the same level as "Master of Puppets" and other classic albums. Even though the tracks are demos and of poor quality they still made me nod my head along with the music. It's a shame we never got to hear what Chuck really had in mind. The rest of the 1st disc and entire 2nd disc are live tracks of older Death songs and Demos.

Nightrage - "Decent into Chaos" Got this for $0.90 and I'm listening to it now thinking it was such a steal! The vocals are poor but the talent in the instrumentation is pretty good. It's like a thrash/death type of music so definitely pick this up if you can find it.

Opeth - "Candle Light Years" This package has the 1st three albums, "Orchid", "Morningrise", and "My Arms, Your Hearse." I have completed my Opeth collection with this purchase. I can't wait to delve into these older Opeth cds and see how far they have come.

                                                             

Now that's all I purchased but I have ordered a few more cds using the last of my gift card credit.
Waiting to get here

Obituary - "Cause of Death" has the awesome track "Chopped in HAWWWWLF"

Obituary - "Slowly We Rot"

Decrepit Birth - "Diminishing Between Two Worlds" Super technical death metal!

Dream Theater - "Octravarium" Once this gets here my DT collection will be complete!

Everything below I ordered from the clearance rack at the CM Distro website. Nothing cost over $2

Shadows Fall - "Of One Blood" It said original edition so maybe I'll get lucky and get a 1st pressing?

Shadows Fall - "Art of Touring DVD"

Avantasia - "The Metal Opera: pt 2"

Stampin' Ground - "A New Darkness Upon Us" First heard these guys on a sampler disc in my "War Within" case. They are sort of a hardcore band but with unique sounding vocals.

Phew that's a ton of cds but I'm glad I got that done! I didn't include all the cds I get to review for the Metal Temple! Until next time.....keep it METAL \nn/