The Corroseum wrote:After years of hoarding ugly, rural compilation albums from all over the world just to add to The Corroseum's Metal Compilopedia, I felt it was time to put this pile of 85% useless junk to even better use. Me and Keir have dabbled in the field of compilation-compilations before, resulting in 4 volumes of virtual CDRs (downloads in the link below) compiling our favourite tracks from all forms of metallic samplers. This time the focus will shift solely to the most Underground form of Steel there is: that which only appeared on obscure, mixed-styles albums produced by local music organizations, radio stations and/or d.i.y. labels. Occationally we will meet old familiar friends on their first steps into the Metal sphere, but for the most part these bands are so arcane they didn't even produce demos(!) - The Epitome Of Ubsküre Metal Kült! Of course this means the general quality won't quite match that of the previous comp-comps, but this time I'm more interesting in cataloguing and exposing what's out there rather than making a Greatest Hits series. Bear in mind I've at least had the decency to exclude the most dire compositions. (Oh don't worry, we'll have a special edition of the truly hilarious WORST-Of-The-Worst-type of stuff in due time..)
For the sake of neat packaging and conceptualization I will also try to compile these samplers country-by-country ("Bloodstains.."-style) for as long as it's possible. We randomly start off with West Germany. There were tons of albums like these from this country and I've already got over an hour of remaining German material waiting on my hard drive, but for the next volume we'll probably be travelling somewhere else, like Russia, or maybe Italy, or why not Sweden??
1st comment, Dan.
later i will comment on the remaining...for now i just stick to my requests :
Big thanks for the covers, inserts ect - where is added some extra info of each band (includings some pics)
You were right - Hemlock rules all the way, followed closely in my opinion of the Amoreen track.
How is possible for a german band to sound like this in 1988 (Hemlock) ? I thought suddenly i was in 1983 haha.
Amoreen is not that much of teutonic. This is a nice response to US Power/Prog in my opinion.
Dynasty was also a good surprise - their thing is melodic-metal. Just like Hemlock, they should have recorded
some vinyl if they could. They were way better than lots of other german private releases.
Black Jack Co. is of the same pedigree - they were good enough to me on their Hard-Rock.
But i guess other people won't like them on the other hand.
Wild Axis were a bit over the top. Bit sloppy (the drumming no ? ) and a bit pretentious for what really was their
musical capacities but far of being a bad band. Far.
Avalon, when the singer (female) dedicates her time to rock, she do ok. But when she stands on her operatic
style they don't much for me - even if the band's background sound is really solid.
Other problem is being a bit repetitive.
so, 90% - with positive to really good evaluation.
thankx a ton Dan for your time and effort to bring to light some real obscurities like Brainhammer & Avalon for example which really kicks serious ass! Can't wait for more obscure steel... If you are interested in unknown Russian steel, check my compilations shared on the Metal Rarities forum!
The Ripper wrote: ↑Sat Mar 16, 2019 8:37 pm
thankx a ton Dan for your time and effort to bring to light some real obscurities like Brainhammer & Avalon for example which really kicks serious ass! Can't wait for more obscure steel... If you are interested in unknown Russian steel, check my compilations shared on the Metal Rarities forum!
Yes - many thanks to Dan for making (another) killer compilation with all these hidden gems!
I checked out the Russian compilations that you mentioned, but none of the links are still active - any chance you could upload them again here? Always eager for more Russian steel.
last comment on this upload with german compilation tracks :
Some i didn't request and that i never listened :
Kristall Palast - typical german hard-rock (not AOR) with a amazing guitar solo.
Lazy Wizzard - better hard/heavy than the track of Kristall Palast specially responsability of the singer of Lazy Wizard. Cool singing.
Wotan - on the first place, i thought these guys were the ones from Berlin but no. Hard-Rock influenced by Deep Purple, Rainbow or Whitesnake - it seems.
Burning Ambition - i've listened some other tracks before, normal metal a bit on the guitars like Saxon but with different sound and singer.
then the others i've listened already - Airless (have to compare yet this version to the demo but most likely it's the same), Running Wild (same as Airless), Gravestone, Brainhammer, Stone Age and Rigor Mortis.
So, the proper version and start of a new series is now done - quicker than I though!
Cool to hear it was appreciated. My own faves, apart from the obvious superiority of BRAINHAMMER, would be AVALON (this track just keeps growing with me. Spinechills & goosebumps galore!), LAZY WIZZARD (sooo glorious faux-NWOBHM!), BURNING AMBITION (together w/ L.W it makes "The Beast" 7" a must-buy) and STONE AGE (there's a cool cockyness about this tune that's hard to pin down, but I just keep hummin' & hummin' it..)
Thanks a million for this DaN, d/ling right now.
I've thoroughly enjoyed all the compilations you & Keir previously curated so i'm sure there will be plenty to get excited about in this new series too.
Extra kudos for taking a country-by-country approach, and for namechecking the 'Bloodstains...' series as an inspiration.
I'm looking forward to hearing future 'Belgian Bronze' , 'Lithunaian Lead' and 'Irish Iron' instalments.
Chermanic steel hasn't ever been a favourite of mine, but despite some of my disparaging comments on the German scene in the past i'm more than happy to have my expectations confounded and prepared to wind up eating humble strudel.
I cannot, I shall not, I will not obey. Avenger wrote : I'm not a copyright office nor a judicial entity.
You're welcome, Kit. Just remember the "30% less Awesome"-anti-hype-sticker isn't all joking about. These comps really will be a bit more "rough". The upside is there will be more unique, unexplored content + ALL music always sound better on conceptual mix-tapes for some reason...