Mustaine described this album as a punk/metal record and had said that Ving’s vocal range is more soulful and that he wanted to work with Ving for a long time. Jimmy DeGrasso, who has played with various other bands, covered the drums on MD.45 and would later go on to play drums for Megadeth. Kelly LeMieux is more of a session bass player who has played for various artists. In 2004 while remaster and remixing  Megadeth’s back catalog, Dave decided to remix and remaster The Craving.This time around he replaced Lee’s vocals with his own due to the vocal and harmonica tracks being missing. Dave says that he doesn’t feel his vocals sound better on the new version but that he thinks more fans will take to this with him singing on it. He was right.

While the leads and rhythms on The Craving are not as complex as a typical Megadeth album, the tone is still there and they are still catchy. With Dave’s vocals on the remastered version I have come to really like this album. It almost feels like a lost Megadeth album. Not a good Megadeth album, but more like a compilation of songs that weren’t quite good enough to make it on a Megadeth album. Appropriately one of the songs on the album, The Creed was a Megadeth song that was demo’d but never used on earlier albums. The actual Megadeth demo is included on the remastered version.

Along with The Creed there are also two other bonus tracks. Chutney, a slow galloping track with what sounds like looped lyrics of four lines. Not a great song and can become annoying after the first minute. The last bonus track is called Segue and it’s only 1 minute, 24 seconds long. It’s nothing special either with a cool bass solo at the beginning and  circus sounding leads. Sounds goofy? Well it is, and if you buy the cd for the bonus tracks alone and not because you wan to hear Dave sing then you will be disappointed.

I think most people are happy that the original vocal tracks were “Lost” and that Dave re-sang the parts instead of Lee Ving. A lot of people complained of the vocals in The Craving and Dave, well…Dave listened to the critics and it probably helped sell the remastered version. The original sat in discount and cut-away bins within a year of it’s original release. I found my copy of the new version in used condition, so apparently not everyone likes this version either. Either way, if you didn’t like the original then give this remastered version a try. It’s a brighter sounding album that some say sounds more like a metal Megadeth album and not the original punk influenced metal sound that was intended. I think it just sounds like better production with a more modern sound. The bass is thicker, the drums are cleaner and more clear and I think it sounds much better. What I do miss is the harmonica that was there before. That was one of the other tracks that went missing. Dave used his guitar to synthesize the harmonica and while it still sounds good it doesn’t have the same feel as the harmonica gave the songs, but it fits with the new version.

Image: Amazon.com

Post from: Metal Martyr

I was a Jesus hating metal-head back then so the song that first sold me totally on this band was “I Need You“, which sound considerably like Entombed’s Blood Song. Why did it sell me? Cool lyrics: ” Pray to your god, you pray as you spit red. Pray to your god, your god will fail and you will be dead…”. I mean, come on. For any metal head that find religion revolting and hypocritical, those are lyrics to live by. These days my views have changed but the song is still cool. The rest of the songs are cool as well.

The production on this CD is not too bad. The vocals are bright enough with just enough reverb and the guitars sound thick. The lyrical content is the usual death metal extravaganza of Satan and Death, but that’s what we love about the music right? Sometimes. Jorgen Sandstrom was on vocals and bass back then, but Ola Lingren is the only original member to date taking the duties of Vocals and guitar. Jorgen left the band and went on to play in Entombed from 1995-2004.

Grave were signed to Century Media back then but after 15 years and 7 albums with Century, they most recently signed with Regain Records and released Dominion VIII back in April.

Image Source: Amazon.com

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14 additional dates in September have been released for Bullet For My Valentine.  Opening acts will be announced in the near future.

• 2-Sep Ft. Lauderdale, FL
• 4-Sep Orlando, FL
• 5-Sep N. Myrtle Bch, SC
• 6-Sep Atlanta, GA
• 8-Sep Knoxville, TN
• 9-Sep Asheville, NC
• 10-Sep Norfolk. VA
• 12-Sep Louisville, KY
• 16-Sep Kansas City, MO
• 17-Sep Des Moines, IA
• 19-Sep Tulsa, OK
• 22-Sep Denver, CO
• 23-Sep Salt Lake City, UT
• 25-Sep San Francisco, CA

www.myspace.com/bulletformyvalentine

www.bulletformyvalentine1.com

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Judas Priest Metal Works 73-93 as they state in the sleeve is not a best of, not a greatest hits record, just great Priest songs from 1973 to 1993. There are other compilations for Judas Priest out there like “The Essential Judas Priest” that have great songs on them too but if you really want the “Essential” Judas Priest, this is it.

This two disc set on Columbia records holds some of the best hits to be released by Priest in the 20 year time span it covers. Disc one hold songs like The Hellion, Painkiller, Breaking The Law, Turbo Lover, Hell Bent For Leather, and Ram It Down to name a few. Disc two has Screaming For Vengeance, Heading Out To The Highway, You’ve Got Another Thing Coming, Touch Of Evil and Night Crawler. The only thing I was always disappointed in is that Diamonds And Rust is not on it. K.K. Downing, Glenn Tipton, Ian HIll, and Rob Halford have been the roots of Judas Priest for over 30 years and never fail to entertain. Even Angel Of Retribution, the first Judas Priest record since Halfords return was a great recording. They still kept the same energy on that record as they have in the past and brought a modern feel to it. Tim “Ripper” Owens did a good job keeping the frontman spot warm for Halford while he was there, but just never did it for me.

The cover art on the Metal Works CD is cool because it has a little bit of art from each of the albums from 73 to 93. If your not even a big Judas Priest fan but you enjoy a few songs here and there from Priest and you have yet to own any Judas Priest CDs I would suggest picking this up.

Image Source: http://www.amazon.com/Metal-Works-73-93-Judas-Priest/dp/B000002960/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1207531802&sr=8-1

Post from: Metal Martyr

One of Minor Threats great hits was Guilty Of Being White. Guilty of Being White was about hated merely for being white because of the white races tainted past of slavery, bigotry and the murderous ways of the KKK. Now I’m not saying that such things as bigotry and prejudice don’t exist in this day and age because they do. You’d be a fool to say that everything is fine in the world of race relations today. They spoke out about not blaming every white person for the history of some of our idiotic forefathers. It’s like Jews blaming every German of today for holocaust events.

Minor Threat also screamed out about religion in Filler, alcoholic violence in Bottled Violence, straight edge ways in Straight Edge, Out Of Step and In My Eyes, Self Pity in Sob Story, and Napoleonistic bastards in Small Man, Big Mouth.

Although their recording history is short Minor Threat did enough in the short time they were on the scene to make an impact in the world of Hardcore and Punk. While aforementioned bands like Bad Religion are still carrying a dimming torch, the world of hardcore/punk is still slightly alive and kicking. Hardcore metal and Metalcore (kind of both the same but not really) have lit a new torch and carry it high with more mainstream bands such as Hatebreed, As I Lay Dying, All That Remains and a boatload of other bands, but there is still a huge underground following in major cities such as L.A., N.Y, Boston, and Chicago just to name a few. Where there are hard knocks there is always hardcore.

Now back to Minor Threat for a moment. There is not that many full-length albums out there of Minor Threat, mostly EP’s because that’s all a lot of bands of this type could afford to do back then . What you will find online and at some major record stores and I’m sure some smaller ones is Minor Threat Complete Discography. The complete discography consists of 26 Minor Threat hits. Not much of a discography, I know but an amazing short career of an amazing band. If you every get a chance and are interested in the world of old School Hardcore/Punk I would highly suggest Minor Threat The Complete Discography. It never hurts to expand your mind in the world of music and see where some of your favorite bands got their influence from.

Image Source: Amazon.com

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I really should have spent my money on an old Testament CD or something. Oh well. I guess I’ll just ad The Poison to my disappointment collection.

I know I’ve done some promo stuff for this band but I have to be brutally honest sometimes and now is one of those times. Like I said, I haven’t heard the new CD and who knows? I might like it. I didn’t like the singing on Trivium’s Ascendancy but I like the singing on The Crusade. When it comes to a good band I’m very picky about the vocals. The Poison just doesn’t do it for me.

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Box sets these days as I mentioned with the Megadeth Warchest, are not like the box sets of old. They are more or less compilations of some of the bands greatest hits, live tracks and rarities. For the price the Slayer box set costs you would think that you would get every slayer song since the beginning. You don’t. In fact you get a lot of songs you already have and some live tracks (Live Slayer is always good though) and some demo tracks and stuff like that. No you know what your paying for when you buy it. It’s all in black and white on the outside of the box, so there is no deception.

My suggestion is this: If you want the box set for the music then buy the smaller version of the Soundtrack To The Apocalypse. If you want the box set for your own collection and fan Value then by all means, buy the Ammo Can Box. The smaller set doesn’t come with the Live tracks disk in the Faux Blood sleeve, but thats something I could live without and save some money. I had the big box set at one time a few years ago and times were tough so I sold it on Ebay. I ripped all the songs to my PC but I do plan on replacing it one day with the smaller of the two. You can find new and used sets for a pretty fair price these days

I give The Soundtrack To The Apocalypse 3 horns.

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A line up change went into effect with the exit of Chris Bartlett (Guitars) and Dan Egan (Bass), and Producer Adam Dutkiewecz (Killswitch Engage) coming into the picture. Matt Deis came onto Bass and paino and this would be his only studio recording with the band. Unfortunately this would be the last record for Matt Bartlett on drums. As we all know in good bands, line-up changes either bring out the best of a band or contribute to the demise of it. This line-up change if anything made a more dynamic All That Remains.

The guitar duo of Oli Herbert and Mike Martin make for a great sound and these two work well together. The acoustic arrangements on the beginning of And Death In My Arms and Regret Not are amazing. The solos are great and the leads and rhythms on the entire cd can’t be touched.

Phil Labonte brought a more diverse vocal range to This Darkened Heart as opposed to the consistent low growling type vocals from Behind Silence And Solitude and I think that is what really makes this record the beginning of a great future for the band. (I hate to do the comparison but Brian Fair has nothing on Phil Labonte).

The 2006 follow up to This Darkened Heart, The Fall Of Ideals shows that All That Remains is here to stay. They will be getting back in the studio sometime in the near future and A new record will be expected in 2009.

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Anyway, UA is a collection of cover songs from Punk, Straight Edge and Cross-over bands like D.I., D.R.i, Minor Threat, T.S.O.L and Jeff Hanneman’s side project. Even if you don’t like any of those genres I can almost guarantee if your a Slayer fan you will like Undisputed Attitude. Gemini being the only original on the record is a great Slayer tune and is said to have been excluded from Divine Intervention. Short to say the least, I think this is shorter than Reign In Blood. Fast, brutal and to the point.

Below is a link to Amazon and a Youtube.com video of Slayer playing Gemini live at 1998’s Monster Of Rock. Enjoy

Slayer Undisputed Attitude At Amazon.com

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The Good: KISS: Double Platinum

A few days ago I did a little Gene Simmons bashing because I felt that I needed to. I may hate the fact that Gene Simmons is a total tool, but you can’t deny the fact that KISS have put out some great records over the years, too include the best of style Double Platinum. Now if you like KISS like I do, but are not a hardcore fan that wants to spend all his hard earned cash on every KISS cd out there then D.P. is for you. The CD case is cool and the songs that are on it rock. It starts out with Strutter ‘78 and has hits like Hard Luck Woman, Detroit Rock City, Calling Dr. Love, and Rock and Roll All Nite. Simply put this is a great KISS cd for the KISS fan that doesn’t want to be a soldier in the KISS Army, but still wants to support the troops. Its kinda funny cause when I went to open this CD it was stuck together with what I’m assuming is old Rollin’ Rock.

The Bad: Danzig 5 Blackacidevil

Back in 1996 when I bought this I was so excited to hear something new from the band even though I heard that all but Glenn had been let go and in came new members. I didn’t know what to expect and when I heard it, it was a huge let down for me. The Danzig I knew went from cool, kick-ass, satanic groove metal to dirty industrial garbage. The voice was no longer Elvis meets Jim Morrison. It was rough and scratchy and the overall sound of the CD was industrial which I hated with a passion.(With the exception of NIN, cause it sounded so damn cool when your huffin nitrous oxide…but that was back in the stupid days). Anyway, this was the snot topped birthday cake for me. I bought two CD’s that day. Pink Floyd’s ‘Wish You Were Here‘ and Blackacidevil. Both bands I love but I never expected to hate a Danzig record so much. The only song I didn’t completely hate on this CD was the cover of Black Sabbath’s Hand Of Doom.

The Evil: Mercyful Fate: Melissa

I said before that I didn’t do black metal…with the exception of this. Danish Black Metal pioneers Mercyful Fate headed by King Diamond. From the first Line of Evil’s :”I was born in a cemetery!” to the classic, Curse Of The Farrows, and all the way to the title track, this record from ‘83 set the standard for Black Metal to come. This was the kind of shit that made our mothers lose sleep at night. Diamond to this day still knows how to scream.

There you have it. If you have a CD in mind that you would like me to review in OSR let me know and I will see what I can do. Or if I don’t own that CD and/or if I’m not familiar with that cd perhaps we can do a guest review and you can get your opinion poster here at Metal Martyr’s OSR.

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