Week4 - Metal & Rock

Slow week, only a handful of albums. The majority of which are me filling in holes in the collection, finally getting two albums from way way back that I enjoyed so much as a punk teenager. But first, since I didn't post it earlier, an in depth look at this weeks New Release.

Broken Bells - Meyrin Fields
Label:
Released: 3/29
Genre: Rock, Pop

Broken Bells have put out a 4-track EP, and by all accounts it's pretty similar to their excellent debut album. They didn't stray too far from the formula, but they didn't lock step into it either. The first and last track really remind me of all the good points of the previous album, the middle two I find Mercer's voice goes a little too off. The only real unfortunate part to this is just as you're really getting into it the EP ends. At just under 20 minutes, and no song stands out as a 'single' it just isn't enough.

Metal Church - The Dark
Label:
Released: 1986
Genre: Heavy Metal

San Fransisco based Metal Church were early on the scene, comrades to Metallica and Megadeth on the west coast. Good classic Speed Metal type stuff here, with screaming vocals, declarations of power and independence and railing against The System and its War Like Ways. Ton Of Bricks and Start The Fire are two awesome anthems in the metal world, easily classics and happily the first two tracks on the album. The Dark title track is another awesome cut. The rest of it is, well, mid-80s speed metal. Good, but unless you're really into the scene (I am) forgettable.

Overkill - Feel The Fire
Label:
Released: 1984
Genre: Thrash Metal

Overkill are by far one of my favorite bands, I found out about them around 1989, The Years Of Decay had just come out I think. Either way I was stuck hard and fast and have been with them since. I wore out my original cassette of Feel the Fire and had to copy a friends. It's just a hammering album from first note to the last. The CD here has a bonus track that wasn't on my original release, and it kind of kills the outro of Overkill signature track - they shoulda put the bonus track earlier. Still, every bit of East Coast Thrash that I remember from my childhood and why the hell did I wait so long to go find this on CD?

The age old argument of Thrash vs Speed? Thrash all the way!