Budgie -- Diamond Head -- Obscure Heavy Metal (RFI)

what am i supposed to be seeing, gnarly?

For some reason my album art disappeared.

More - Blood & Thunder (Atlantic) 82
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51WHE474B1L._SS500_.jpg

Overdrive - Swords and Axes (Metal for Muthas) 84
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41NZ0QRJT5L._SS400_.jpg

i've got to at least check out that more album. anyone with the balls to put that guy on the cover has gotta rock.

recommendations please!

can't go wrong with this one:

http://www.ondarock.it/images/cover/sadist.jpg

XPOST II HAWKWINDZ:
Does the image not show for you? It's Syar's bodacious "Death Before Dishonour" sleeve, which I'll readily admit to buying for the outstanding artwork alone. It came out on Mausoleum records, which seems to be a gold mine for similarly inept metal artwork.

http://www.geocities.com/minormind/Mausoleum/mausobqframe.html

Unfortunately, I know nothing of any of these bands!

doesn't show, no, but wow that's a hell of an album cover.

only one of those bands i've heard is cutty sark, who are okay. okay enough to be covered by deceased, i guess. but they were a little less RAAARGH than i was hoping for. i think i might need to check out ostrogoth...

also, SAINTS ANGER!

everyone knows about VIBRATIONS OF DOOM, right? they've got realaudio of a lot of superobscure old metal albums. not that realaudio is ideal, but i've used it many times before buying (or not) some overpriced LP.

ha, i spoke too soon - i have that tyrant LP on mausoleum, pretty cool almost-speed metal like IRON ANGEL or something. and i saw that tox LP once, it was a little more than i wanted to spend. but that fucking album cover...

Vibrations of Doom is cool. That and Spirit of Metal seem to be the only point of information for so many of these bands, save for the near-formulaic Geocities pages giving the same sad story about how band x was tragically misunderstood, screwed over, etc.

i have nothing to contribute here

except to say

my mum introduced me to budgie and i still think they rule

your mom rules.

also, ay mr fastnbulbous thanks for pointing out MORE, that shit is great. kind of scratches the same itch as the first fastway album but way harder.

AWESOME.

been listening to lots of swedish 80s heavy metal this week. i am really digging arrows - wounded in love/i want to give you rock 'n' roll, dudes sound like they're 13 or something, outrageously scratchy yelping vocals and the songs are only like two minutes each. awesome. you could probably put them on back from the grave vol. 9 without raising too many eyebrows.

also excellent eps by: hels, silver mountain, the wagabond (yep, wagabond), faith, 200 volt, crystal pride, shakespeare, maninnya blade, behemoth (uk), e.f. band, dark knight, rex begonia, grave (swe), jeremiah... man. so many awesome singles.

http://vibrationsofdoom.com/test/covers/Axewitch-TLOF.jpg

I picked up that Live to Ride compilation I mentioned up thread. Cool stuff. The hit is Agony Bag's "Rabies is a Killer", which is great chugging party track with a synthy sounding guitar solo which sort of recycles the Stones' Satisfaction.

And this will likely be meaningless to non-Britishers, but the lead guitar on the track by MARSEILLE features none other than Art Attack's Neil Buchanan!! There's a pic of him all punked up 'n all. Awww.

HEATHER LEATHER!

Love how she totally fails to hit the high notes around the chorus.

Love how someone, presumably a fan, can't spell the name correctly even when it's printed in huge letters on the back wall. Doh!

I finally heard that Black Hole record recently. WAY cool stuff.

http://www.rockadrome.com/superstore/images/private/blackholelandcd300.jpg

http://vibrationsofdoom.com/test/covers/BlackHole.jpg

hell yeah. the unreleased thing that the same label put out is even weirder. less metal though.

heather leather rules too.

What's the label and what's the other release? Thanks.

the label is andromeda, the album's called living mask.

http://www.metal-archives.com/release.php?id=45261

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyXL-xIVs1U

REALLY liking mistreater lately. very 70s sound with vocals that are kinda charmingly amateurish and not too dramatic. the "hell's fire" album is absolutely worth DLing.

also, Dark Quarterer for ever and ever...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOMrTpB8FPI

... but put on a shirt, dude.

for the artwork's sake:
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/4600/victimpowerlp300di4.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_y5YZBsm3LK4/SjkXENvF2xI/AAAAAAAAA20/vIXVUhK198g/s320/00_pandemonium-the_kill-vinyl-1988-front.jpg

A WHERRWOLF?

The lady in that last one looks like Prince; the purple top only enhances the connection.

i have a tshirt with a cartoon of prince on it, looks exactly like that

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ho4pjIYYqg

Wow, how are they English? That vocalist is nuts.

I don't appear to have mentioned this blog yet on this thread, soooo:

http://strappadometalblog.blogspot.com/

It's a goldmine. A tinmine, too, but there's a lot of gold.

That's a cool site, thanks for that. It has Moose Molten Metal Vol 1! I still have the cassettes of both volumes. Plus it has the very odd Quebec band Eudoxis:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58grciw1-Z4

I still have that Eudoxis album on cassette! Couldn't tell you where I bought it, or if I got a copy to review back in the day or what, but pretty cool stuff.

They played that video on Much Music so often to fill out the mandatory Canadian content quota, that I got so sick of that song.

I was nuts about this song back in 1985. Warriors were a Serbian band that signed to Attic Records in Canada, and came off as a combination of Scorpions and Accept, really melodic but damn heavy at times too. I loved the theatricality of this track in particular:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUARgSKhX6w

man that is a solid track

li'l bit of "the passion of lovers" in the riff imo

Yeah that's pretty dope, also love the same synth-chimes that Samhain used.

This is a great thread. Listening to Diamond Head at the moment. "Sucking My Love" is repetitive as hell but damn if last two minutes don't make the whole thing worthwhile.

What got you back into budgie recently? Just a whim? I'm curious because my friend mentioned them yesterday and the last time I heard about them before that I was looking at the birdman records Japan website five years ago.

I'm a huge Budgie fan. And we are going to be main support to Diamondhead here in Portland in August at the nicest theater in town. Psyched!

Sweet Nate! Where's the show?

I see on Facebook - The Aladdin! Swanky digs are gonna spoil you.

Yeah. I've always wanted to play the Aladdin. And aside from being the Dj at the Stryper show, I never had the opportunity until now. Stoked!

Hey this just got reissued

http://i48.tinypic.com/28lsvft.jpg

Doom/heavy metal, with one song ("Kiss Me With Blood") that sounds like attempted death rock.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXWIQkos6TA

I had this compilation on vinyl back when I picked up all metal compilations... This song stuck out since it was the oldest (the back of the sleeve had the years) and this one dated back to 1978 or 79 I think. It also stood out because it boogied.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNGQYnbP1us

This is another song I got on an old Neat compilation. I love this song, I can see a young Lars and James digging this and I also can envision what it would have sounde dlike had they rightfully included it on the Garage Days EP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrJzEcmQbJY

I always had a soft spot for the second Metal Massacre disc... Loved the cheesy synth during the chorus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Azj8TAqx-rk&feature=relmfu

Warfare, who borrowed a lot more punk than most of their peers...

Actually that Axe cut was culled from the "Lead Weight" Neat compilation:

http://www.goodbadmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/p1060695.JPG

Here is the back:

http://www.goodbadmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/p1060696.JPG

I assume Axe and Fist were the same band, kinda...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY57GGvON50

Demon came up above.. I still have this debut on cassette. It's a lot more raw and decidedly non-proggy unlike the several hundred albums that the band would eventually churn out.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_7WL8YT7JOT0/S7ch2CWKm_I/AAAAAAAAHPU/bfq-0O-Rk4A/s1600/cover.jpg

Another old compilation I used to own before the great flood of 2011. It had this, what I think is the oldest version of a song that has appeared in many places. It was made "popular" by Black Widow; here it is credited to Widow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tATWV8FtIAY

Funny story about this one... I made a post about the track in a thread here called Answering Machine about what one would put on one's answering machine.

Showing the power of ILM, a dude FROM the band actually sent me an email joking asking me for royalties from my answering machine and thanking me for the reference.

"trail by fire" http://www.varunaholzapfel.de/wbblite/images/smilies/headbang.gif

U dudes ever heard E-X-E?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkBJpB-hjD8

They had a really weird jumble of ideas (sort of like the muscle-bound Hercules looking cat on the cover with the green ghoul head grafted on), with speed metally, trad-HM vocal tracks like "Slayer" jumbled together with obviously Hell Awaits-influenced thrash/death stuff with an almost punk vibe:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzASgaQnjYI

DEATH! CREATION! DEATH! AUTOPSY!

That's pretty good! I remember the name but never heard them. It came out in 1987 which is when thrash and speed was already somewhat established. My guess is that as all of those bands were moving past trad metal and pushing the envelope with technical ideas and speed that EXE's relatively throwback sound put them a little late and also a little early.

Apparently somewhat legendary metal producer Carl Canedy (he drummed for The Rods and seemed to be the in-house Megaforce producer, handling so many of that label's early stuff) produced it. Here is an interview with him ONLY ABOUT THAT RELEASE! WHich boggles my mind.

Leslie's Metal Blog

The interview sees him almost as bemused by the topic as I was that the interview even existed, but Leslis is obviously a big fan!

Also, the label that released it - Shatter Records - was evidently an early home of Monte Connor who would go on to sign a shit-ton of bands on Roadrunner.

I read that interview the other day! Provides more insight into the band and album than I've ever had before (I don't remember them being interviewed anywhere back in the day).

My guess is that as all of those bands were moving past trad metal and pushing the envelope with technical ideas and speed that EXE's relatively throwback sound put them a little late and also a little early.

Good point - '87 was when I was really getting into thrash and they already sounded a little old school (anathema to me at the time) but it was well done enough that it spent a lot of time in my Walkman anyway.

Upon further reflection, I got to say what were they thinkin' with "Canturbury". It's pretty much a prog throwback. I'd kinda like to hear what it would have sounded like with a meaner presentation. They did really have a heck of a debut record though, at least material wise.

Two other thoughts, I got to wonder about their indie (we are going to do it our way) method was a huge commercial mistake [obviously having their meager success in that their sound was about change that came] or was they a really a bit ahead of their time (i.e. the 90s/80s indie punk/metal development). Or what's it like watching other dudes take yer riffs and end up living in Malibu buying and profiting in the art game.

"the shape of stoner rock to come"