I am at the point as a collector where all that's left, more or less, is junk. Rare indy releases, releases from bands outside the Anglo-metal scene, demo reissues, that sort of thing. It used to be that I'd go to a fest and come home with 20 really great albums. Now, I get a lot of stuff to fill out my stupid collection that I'll listen to once. But, this still brings me joy, so I keep doing it, and of course I do sometimes land some surprisingly good stuff. That said, this PARTICULAR haul is quite heavy on for-collectors-only items, but it might amuse some people here.

Axton Pryte\The Lab
Very obscure self-released French EP from 85 or 86, sung in English. While this is definitely a "cult-because-it's-rare" kind of thing, it's pretty decent for 80s French metal.

Rage\Black In Mind - 20th Anniversary
Didn't even know this was coming. It has all of the bonus tracks that were originally scattered over two or three different versions of the disc, plus a bonus disc of demos for the album, including a handful of songs never otherwise recorded (one of which is a Spandau Ballet cover!!!) BiM is not my fave Rage, but it's aged fairly well, and it's nice to have all those bonus tracks in one place, as they're uncommonly good as bonus tracks go, especially the japanese exclusive, "Chase"

Thoughtsphere\Grailkeeper's Gate
Self-released debut from the first band of Forces At Work's Adrian Weiss. Good simple prog metal with some power metal leanings.

E.S.T.\Live in the Outskirts of Moscow
This was a big dumb skull that I reviewed, and I bought it more or less for the cover, which is astounding:



Lanzer\Use It or Lose It
Lanzer\Black Crusader
Solid German power metal from the late 80s/early 90s. Black Crusader is a collection of demos, while Use It Or Lose It is the debut. Their second album is good, too, and much easier to find than these. I haven't heard Black Crusader yet, but the debut is good.

Sagittarius\Jole's Joke
Strange Norwegian prog metal from the 90s. Imagine just the clean-sung parts of Borknagar's The Archaic Course, and you're in the right neighborhood. A product of its time and place, for sure.

Guardian Angel\Oblivion Seas
Indy Greek prog metal from 1997, with a better singer than you'd expect from a Greek prog metal band

Mordred\Demos 1 & 2
I hear the sound is for shit, but I haven't spun the disc yet. I have old cassette dubs of these demos, and they're good bay area thrash, without any of the funk and hip hop that either made, or ruined, the band later on, depending on your point of view.

Detente\History 1
Surprisingly good demo roundup of questionable legitimacy.

Chainsaw\Permanent Menace
Another big dumb skull, but this is one I kinda liked when I reviewed it, and I found it sealed for .

Motorband\Made in Germany
Pretty damned great Hungarian speed/power metal from 1990. Really good singer. Sometimes a little samey, drum-wise, but overall a very good Eastern-bloc disc.

Hydra\Exhibition of Malice
Very weird Japanese thrash from the mid 90s. Some great riffing here, but the vocals are... odd. The singer has a high melodic voice, although his melodies are often very terrible.

Aion\Zetto
I think this might be the last thrashy Aion album before they went electro-goth or whatever. Weird japanese thrash with a kind of Voivod vibe in places, and a great singer.

Hammers Rule\Spontaneous Human Combustion
On Metal Enterprises! I'd heard at least half of the album on YouTube and thought it was shockingly good for an ME release, so I bought it, despite a fairly egregious price tag. This might have been a terrible mistake, at least based on the first two tunes. I'll have more on this breaking story as it comes in.

Malón\Espíritu Combativo
The music is so-so thrash from Argentina (1995) but I bought this ENTIRELY for the cover, which is amazing:



Emerald Steel\Emerald Steel
Another big dumb skull! ES were basically a low-rent Crimson Glory wannabe. They self-released this album in evidently very small quantities. I previously owned it only as a Hot Metal Records bootleg, but I scored an original at KIT for a more-than-fair price. Some of these songs are atrocious, but others are quite good. The singer is a little silly.

Noahs Reign\2 Worlds Collide
Self-released US metal from the late 90s. Probably a lot of bands like this floated under my radar, even though I was pretty plugged into that scene.

Lunarchy\Mind & Motion
Vaguely Queensrychian prog metal from Germany, self-released in 1994.

Typhoon\Take Good Care
Rare German thrash from the early 90s, although it sounds more American than German.

Forced Entry\Forced Entry
Not the Seattle band, but the German band who later changed their name to STS 8 Mission, which has to be one of the worst metal band names ever conceived. This was just reissued by Battle Cry, and it's solid german melodic speed metal.

Poverty's No Crime\Spiral of Fear
I had no idea this was even coming. I listened once on the car ride to the airport yesterday morning, and was underwhelmed. I thought their last album was one of their best, but this seems more like the very boring album that preceded that. Maybe it's a grower, though, or something that isn't easily absorbed on a car ride. We'll see!

Puls\Bigbit Je V Nas
Wellington\Szabadon
These are both Hungarian bands. I listened to some clips on YouTube and they sounded okay, and both discs were stupidly cheap.

Septagon\Deadhead Syndicate
Killer melodic thrash in the Forbidden vein from some of my pals in Lanfear, and the singer from Atlantean Kodex (who I also met at the fest, and who is a super cool guy.)

It's a good thing I don't collect vinyl, or I might have spent a fortune and loaded up on some REALLY idiotic old shit.

Matt