Record Fair Haul 4/15/2018

Yup. It's that time of year again. My last semester at college means my last chance to go to the local Record Fair and get some dumb bullshit that only I would like. The haul isn't as massive as previous travels but I think I found some nice gems.

Iron Maiden – Brave New World

Heyyo idiots have you heard of this little indie band you've never heard of called Iron Maiden from Britanland? Jokes aside, yeah I never actually owned a copy of Brave New World. It's easily one of the best Iron Maiden albums, let alone one of the best modern Iron Maiden albums. I just picked it up to try and come closer to completing my collection. Come to think of it, I still need Somewhere Back In Time and Powerslave... all in due time I guess.

Crematory – Awake

So this isn't great but it's got a lot going for it. While this at first glance seems like a death metal album, the sound is actually closer to that of a gothic metal album with lots of neat samples and a more sad tone. What keeps it from being a stellar album is the production being pretty weak and the song structures being a lot more bland then they should be. Riffs start and try to last a whole song and tend to fail pretty hard. Overall it's a bland album that could be better with some tweaks. I think I'll give some of their other albums a chance, metal-archives seems to suggest they have better material elsewhere.

Cyclone Temple – I Hate Therefore I Am

So this is a real gem. Remember in the 90s when Anthrax looked at Soundgarden and Alice In Chains and said “yeah we can do that!” then they failed miserably? This actually sounds like those albums, if they were decent. Very fast, but not without being the dumbed down groove thrash that a lot of 90s thrash devolved into. But what makes this album stand out a little bit more is the tone. Things aren't so fast as to lack complexity, and the vocals and breakdowns give a steady flow of the more distorted noise rock that many grunge bands in the 90s used effectively. The result is the true blue (if kinda lumpy) cross between grunge and thrash that the Bush-era Anthrax tried so hard to achieve. It's not flawless, and some riffs are definitely more on the generic side, but you have an interest in thrash, it's worth the time.