After scrolling through The Deciblog on my google reader, I noticed a lot of mention of Woods Of Ypres. They were doing a tour diary of sorts and it made me curious. So I googled their name, started listening to some tunes on Woods Of Ypres Myspace and found W4: The Green Album on iTunes. It didn’t take long before I was hooked on the dark, doom melodies and the vocals, both clean and screamy.

Songs like Shards Of Love, I Was Buried…In Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Wet Leather and By The Time You Read This are gripping and catchy. It’s funny how something so simple can be very extravagant and touching without going overboard and trying to be epic. The slower songs are just utterly amazing, so when the heavier ones kick in you are ready and willing to kick the shit out of something living, dead or inanimate. I have yet to listen to their previous three albums but it’s on my list of “Shit I Must Do and SOON”. Check out a few of the songs of of this 80 minute masterpiece.

*This is a little something I resurrected from my Metal Martyr days*

Every list like this is going to objectionable and subject to criticism from people, but I think it’s rather well put together. It’s not a list of mediocre bass players that have a big name in a big band, but rather a list of skilled bass players that have made a name for themselves through their style and tone. Most bass guitar players in metal bands are just simply there to fill the void. To give the music the heavy bottom end. A lot of them are skilled to a point, but most could be replaced at the drop of a hat. A lot of great players are overlooked, though. Here are ten essential bass guitar players that have wowed me either recently or over the years. A few you might know and a few you may not. I’ll start from the bottom and work my way up.

10. Martin Mendez- Mendez is not as well known as most bass players in metal, but he has a certain smooth style and skill that he uses on his Fender Jazz bass that keeps the sound of Opeth genuine. Playing in a band like Opeth, you really have to have a finesse about your playing in order to not sound out of place. If it was just as simple as hitting simple notes, Opeth would just be another band and Mendez would just be another bass player. Neither of which is the case here.

9. Mike Inez- Perhaps Mike Inez doesn’t deserve to be this far down on the list, but someone had to be. Inez has been around while and has played with Ozzy, Heart, Slash’s Snakepit and Alice In Chains. He brings a tone and style that is well known.

8. David Ellefson- Two words for you, “Peace Sells”. Ellefson was the bottom ended backbone for Megadeth for so many years. It was hard to imagine Megadeth without him and to this day it still seems a little strange, even with James Lamenzo in the position.

7. Ryan Martinie- Mudvayne’s Martinie has a pretty signature sound. Since busting in to the nu-metal scene on 2000′s L.D.50, he’s brought a tone that helps define the band’s sound. When you hear a Mudvayne song, even if you don’t know it, chances are you recognize it as a Mudvayne song because of Ryan’s complex bass playing and sound.

6. Ron Broder- Who? Most people haven’t heard of this phenomenal bass player/vocalist of Swiss tech-thrash band Coroner. Not only does this guys sing and play, but he plays rather technical bass for a bass handling frontman. What I mean by that is some people may ask “Why isn;t Tom Araya on this list?”, and my answer would be “because Tom Araya is first and foremost a singer who just happens to play enough bass guitar to hold down the bottom end of Slayer. Ron Broder is more of a technical bass player that also happens to be a bad ass singer for a highly under-rated band.

5. Robert Trujillo- Not a big name because he is in Metallica and does that spider-walk, but because he’s Robert Trujillo. Metallica didn’t just choose him because they dug his braids. Robert is a veteran. He’s been around the metal world quite a bit, playing for Zakk Wylde, Ozzy, Anthrax, Suicidal Tendencies, The Infectious Grooves and Jerry Cantrell. He’s got skill and can adapt wherever his talent takes him.

4. Cliff Burton- Who knows what level Cliff Burton would be at today, had he not been tragically removed from life. Though production quality lacked back in the early 80′s you can hear what kind of player Burton was. His bass solo on (Pulling Teeth) Kill’em All was unique in so many ways at the time and the rest of his work on the latter Metallica albums solidified him as a great bass player and a huge influence on so many bass players today.

3. Billy Sheehan- When he played in the band Mr. Big, they were referring to him. Ok, I just made that up, but it’s Billy Sheehan for Christ’s sake! I really don’t think I need to elaborate.

2.Steve Digiorgio- Most are saying, “Who?”. Steve Digiorgio is probably not as well know as any other player on this list but is an absolute phenom on the fretless bass. He is a founding member of Sadus and has played in Death, Testament, Autopsy, Iced Earth and is currently playing for Sebastian Bach, where I doubt his skills are fully utilized. If you’ve ever watched the bonus DVD that comes with the Roadrunner United CD, he played the bass parts on Annihilation By The Hands Of God. Watch him in that session, it will blow your mind. Digiorgia doesn’t get the recognition he deserves..but how many bass players actually do?

1. Steve Harris- As if you didn’t see this coming. If you’re a metal fan and you don’t know who Steve Harris is then I question your metal-ness. Harris plays the bass like a lead guitar, and does it all with his fingers. Not only does he play it like a lead guitar with his fingers but he does it with surgical accuracy. More times than not, the guitar players are the forefront of the band behind the vocalist. Not in Maiden. Harris is Dickinson’s co-pilot on the stage. For a long time the bass guitar was not a very audible instrument in most metal bands. It was there, but it was never really loud enough to be distinct, but never in Iron Maiden. That distinct, audible bass is what set apart Iron Maiden from most bands. God forbid, if anything ever happened to Steve Harris, Iron Maiden would be over. This list would be wrong without Harris in the #1 spot.

Image: Newscom

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Absolute Vengeance out of  Northern Virginia was one of the first bands I made contact with when I started blogging. If you have been following my bloggings long enough, I’m sure you’ve heard me mention them at least once. Still rather unknown outside of Virginia, they have a small collection of songs that will hopefully one day circulate more widely around the metal globe. I’ve yet to see a live show, even though I only live about 4 to 6 hours away from most of the areas they play. Maybe one day this summer or fall I will make my way up there.

They have shared the stage with various well known metal acts. Currently I don’t have a clue what they are up to cause they haven’t updated their Myspace blog in about a year. I do know that they were planning a split with Age Of Ruin, but now I think that band is defunct or something. They released an EP a few years ago with 3 songs on it and have recorded a few more songs that you can hear on their Myspace, as well as listent o a few below in the reverbnation player. Some of the older songs are also available for download. Check out their Myspace page for more tracks.

In case you don’t know what a Security Threat Group (STG) is, it is a fancy name for a gang in prisons. I work at a prison and I’m currently going through some training. Yesterday’s subject was Security Threat Groups in prison. As the instructor was discussing some of the groups like the Aryan Brotherhood, MS13′s, Bloods, Crips and various other gang known to populate prisons, I read ahead a bit. I literally almost lost it in a fit of laughter when I came across Juggalos toward the very end.

This is not a joke. A Security Threat Group is validated as a group having 3 or more members, engaging in criminal activity often involving violence. While it may seem both hilarious and ridiculous at the same time to think of Juggalos as an actual “Gang”, I hate this for a couple of reasons. I’m sure some Juggalos are loving the fact that they now think they are on the same level as valid notorious gangs, but NINJA PLEASE! These other gangs are well known for their violent and well organized criminal business activities, both inside and outside of the prison system. The only crime that Juggalos organize is their next gathering. They aren’t a security threat; they are a threat to the human gene pool and that’s it. That is obviously one reason that I hate it, but I hate it for other Juggalos that are just merely fans of ICP and don’t act completely retarded and take the music serious. Those select few are often marred by the image and reputation of the Juggalos.

So how did Juggalos become this “Security Threat Group”? Simple. There are some Juggalos in prison for crimes from brutal murders, to dope dealing and various other felonies. They might have the “hatchetman” tattoo and they probably still act like a white trash, wanna-be thug while they are in prison. They probably claimed to be Juggalos when they were getting processed in to the prison system, or they had some sorry ass “Juggalo gang” affiliation present when they where arrested. Their local police likely and sadly recognize these dipshits as a “gang” per se.

I’m sorry, but the last group I’m worried about in prison are the fucking Juggalos. Check out this video of Juggalo Daniel, who’s sexual preference is “neither”.

• Masterplan – Time To Be King (check out a review at TNOTB)
• Mob Rules - Radical Peace (Awesome melodies)
• Dream Evil - In The Night (You’ve heard of them or heard them and probably love them)
• Disdain – Leave This World (A little wanky with the keyboards at times)
• Heavenly – Carpe Diem (A little more keyboard driven and a bit “Inspirational”)
• InnerWish – No Turning Back (A lot of gang vocals that make it nice and heavy)
• Lonewolf – The Dark Crusade (French power metal)
• Kiuas – Lustdriven (FUCKING KILLS! My favorite out of this list)
• Sabaton – Coat Of Arms (A bit different. Folky, cheesy and heavy. War concepts = Cool albums) Have to thank SPna15 from TNOTB for the recommend.
• Black Majesty – In Your Honour (Australian Power Metal)

Heaven and Hell is one of those songs I had heard many a times, but never really appreciated it until about two years ago, when I bought the Dio Anthology. Appropriately, they (Geezer and Tony Iommi and RJD) went with this title for their recent collaboration as a group. Here is classic live footage of Black Sabbath performing Heaven And Hell.

The recent Opeth news reminded me about an EP I got not too far back. After falling in love with Bloodbath through their Unblessing The Purity EP, Resurrection Through Carnage and then The Fathomless Mastery in 2008, I dug a bit deaper and found their debut release, the Breeding Death Ep. The very short Ep only originally contained 3 songs when released in 2000, but had two demo tracks added to it for a re-release in 2006. Though very short, Breeding Death is very enjoyable, especially if you already like Bloodbath and old school, traditional Death Metal. I must note that this Ep has a very Obituary feel to it. Maybe because of the low, droning tone of the guitars. You can check out the three songs after the fold.

As shunned as metalcore is to the average metal semi-elitest bastard; Christian Metalcore seems to be even more shunned. Mainly I think this is because the overwhelming of hatred for religion in the metal scene. Some feel that Christianity and Metal don’t mix. I think Unblack Metal is the stupidest thing I have ever heard of, but somehow I allow myself to have a double standard and feel that Christian Metal does have it’s place.

As a person that still has some conflicting interests in religion, I don’t believe that anyone has the right to say that Christianity doesn’t belong in metal. I get tired of the monotony of Satanic overtones in Metal, as it’s way overdone. It’s one gigantic sphere of hypocritical mass, in my opinion, in respect to both sides of the fence. On one side you have religion, which has been the cause of conflict in most wars since the beginning of time. You have people trying to spread the word of their God, yet some of them don’t know when to leave well enough alone and to stop pushing people, proclaiming that their God is better than the other person’s God.

On the other side of that proverbial fence, you have metal fans that say “Hail Satan”, this and that and tell people to think for themselves, while they are deeply influenced by their favorite bands to despise religion and Christianity. Is that really thinking for yourself? I’m not the most intelligent person in the world, but that seems pretty hypocritical to me. If you’re going to tell people to think for themselves, you have to be able to do the same and decipher the difference between thinking and speaking for yourself and knowing when to leave things alone and co-exist. I know that a lot of people don’t need religion to live a good and moral way of life. Some Christians don’t feel that way and they think that all non-believers are sinful heathens, while some Christians know this to be untrue and know that even the holiest Christians commit some of the most heinous acts against humanity.  It’s a double edged sword of enormous proportion.

You have the crazy sect on both sides of this fence that will relentlessly fight to prove their point to an almost maniacal stage, when reality shows that neither side can really prove anything. Sure history can prove that there had to be some sort of existence of a prophet, but things get twisted over thousands of years. Science on the other hand seems more solid, yet neither side can prove the existence or non-existence of God.

Back to the point. Christian Metal may be an oxymoron to some, but it’s not all as bad as some may think. As I Lay Dying is a Christian metal band that is liked by many fans, despite their beliefs. Most of their fans like them for their sheer ferocity and heavy playing. War Of Ages is a great Metalcore band with a lot of talent and melody, with minimal breakdowns. Impending Doom‘s last album (Serpent Servant) was a great Christian Dethcore album. I’m not a deathcore fan, but Impending Doom is cool with me. Aside from these three bands, Stryper is also a guilty pleasure of mine. I’m kind of tired of AILD, but War Of Ages has me hooked on their new album, Eternal. Impending Doom is a bit heavier with a lot less melody, but both of these bands get their point across without having to mention Jesus or God in particular. Stryper on the other hand are pretty straight forward with their point in their songs.

All metal fans are hypocritical in a sense. We call metal a brotherhood, yet we despise, shut out and criticize many of the genres within it. We call some people sheep, but we have our own shepherds. We claim to be open-minded, yet we’re some of the most close-minded fools when it comes to our music and beliefs. We try to justify all of these things in many different ways, but we really can not. Are we wrong for being this way? I don’t think so. I think we’re just like everyone else…only better. See, we’re ALL a bunch of hypocritical bastards.

Nuclear Assault: One of the earlier American Thrash bands to take thrash metal in an even more aggressive approach than most of the thrash bands of the day, Nuclear Assault were rough around the edges. After various problems at the high point of their career and the birth of Grunge in the early 90′s, Nuclear Assault broke up in 1995. In 2002 they reunited and released a live album called Still Alive and in 2005 a new studio album was released called Third World Genocide, which was and still is a great album as the band still holds true to their form. Here is a classic from their 1988 album Survive.

Coroner: Switzerland’s Coroner were just three roadies for Celtic Frost that decided it was time to form their own band. Much more technical than most thrash bands, Coroner never got enough exposure even after 5 full length studio albums. These guys are the Anvil of Europe; the only difference is, is that they’re fucking awesome! Lack of promotion and exposure led to the demise of the band in 1995. Here is my favorite track from their debut album R.I.P.

Dark Angel: Not to be confused with Death Angel, Dark Angel from Los Angeles had quite the short catalog of albums between 1985 and 1991 before their break up in 1992. In 2002 they reunited for 3 years before singer Rob Rinehart started having health problems and the band finally pulled the plug (on the band, not on Rob). Their first two albums were their best in my opinion, though production was not as good as their last two.You might know their drummer, byt the name of Gene Hoglan.

Exumer: This German thrash band didn’t have the same luck that Kreator or Sodom had back in the day. After only two albums, Exhumer hung it up. Word of new material this year is rumored.

Sadus: Antioch California’s most under-rated technical thrash band has Steve Digiorgio, one of my favorite bass players; so they have to be good right? Probably the most technical thrash band that I can think of and as good as Ron Broder is, he can’t touch Steve DeGiorgio abilities. Sadus’ albums have been spread thin over the last 24 years with only really 5 albums [6 if you count the D.T.P. demos]. For a production critic like myself, 2006′s Out For Blood is actually my favorite, due to it’s cleanliness, but the rest of their albums are an absolute must for the old school. thrash fans. This song is from their 2006 album.

Obviously I decided to keep the domain and continue with my own stuff here too, but what I think really inspired me to continue on my own thing as well, was seeing some of the things and work that Desee, the tech-nerd for TNOTB was doing to help their blog grow. This was the kick in the ass for me to keep on keepin’ on with H.I.M.. I also took some ideas from TNOTB and incorporated them in to the redesign of H.I.M., like the little bar at the bottom, getting Facebook and Twitter widgets and changing over to feedburner cause my own RSS thing was fucked up. Feedburner kills! On top of all that, I imported all my old shit from Metal Martyr. Yeah, all my old shit in all my illiterate glory can be found right here now.

While I was there, I wrote a few pieces and was even interviewed by Desee, who tried doing it over skype while I was extra shit-faced on St. Patty’s day. A day I also spilled Guinness on my laptop. Fun night for staying at home. Anyway, below you will find links to a few posts I wrote and the interview in which Des picked my brain about metal blogging.

• Oppressor: Gone But Not Forgotten. A post about the brief history of 90′s tech-death band Oppressor.
• Hail!Hornet: I Do Believe In Black. I do, I do, I do. About the Southern Grime Metal collaboration.
• Yakuza: Anything But Ordinary. Chicago’s Jazz/prog metal band.
• Goatwhore Live Show Review. Guess what this is?
• Barren Earth: Curse Of The Red River Review.
• Shitty Music Saturday: ICP’s Bang!Pow!Boom!. I subjected myself to an ICP album while GroverXIII was on vacation. I felt dirty and I never want to talk about it again.
• Want to know what all you ‘Core kids are going to look like when you’re 60? Click HERE.
• Psilocybe Larvae and the (Almost) Non-Existence. Russian prog/death metal.
• TNOTB Interviewed Me. It was interesting to be the interviewee.

Let’s first look in that reasoning. The technical death metal guitar players of today play notes at a much higher rate of bpm than anything that was being played back in the late 60’s, right up in to the mid 90’s even. With maybe the exception of one Eddie Van Halen’s Eruption, that melted the faces of many people in 1978 before “melting faces” ever became a stupid, overused term in metal. From then on he was emulated and ended up inspiring many more guitar greats.

Jimmy Page, Jimi  Hendrix, and Eric Clapton among a plethora of others, are known for being guitar greats. Did they play like the technical guitar players of today? No, but they had a certain finesse with their playing and technique that stood out from the rest. Jimi Hendrix’ unorthodox style of playing and improvised soloing always sound inspired; whether it was inspired by hallucinogenic drugs or not is irrelevant. The sounds he made came from emotion and heart. Same thing could be said about Jimmy Page. Even though most of his riffs in Led Zeppelin were ripped off from early blues players, Jimmy took a simple, minimal effects set up and did a lot with it.

Moving forward, Randy Rhodes was a studying musician, always trying to better his own playing and knowledge of music. The chords he uses are a bit more complex than that of most metal guitar players and who knows what he could have become, had he decided not to get in that airplane. Steve Ray Vaughan loved the blues and ripped through songs on his Fender like it was nobody’s business. Dimebag Darrell Abbott was greatly inspired by Eddie Van Halen and created a tone and groove to his playing that is still unmatched today.

While I do not doubt the ability and love for playing that some of the extremely talented and amazing guitar players of today have, it seems that heart and emotion have given way to speed and technicality. Listening to the old guitar greats is more of a memorable experience in my opinion. When you can take one or two notes with a simple Les Paul and Fender amp with minimal effects and put so much sound and emotion in to them being played over a 20 second period; that to me is playing from the heart and making much more than just music.

When you see a “guitar great” play live, you can see the raw heart and passion poor out through their fingers, in to their riffs. Their posture and facial expressions show the love they are putting in to playing that particular bit. When you see a great guitar player, playing a very technical part, they are usually slightly slumped over their guitar, concentrating on their speed and accuracy of that riff so they get it just right. They may be putting their heart in to it, but it doesn’t always project on stage.

These days it’s all about fitting in as many notes, pinch harmonics, taps and effects in to one bar as you possibly can. While it sounds really cool most of the time, it’s easily forgettable if it’s not done right. It doesn’t leave you with any emotion. It doesn’t leave you with that warm and fuzzy feeling inside you like get when you hear some of the riffs in Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon, or the rhythms in any of Zeppelin’s albums. I think a lot of technical guitar players of today have a lot of help in the studio and when it comes to a live show, they have a tough time emulating that studio sound. Does this mean they are not great guitar players? No. It only means that they need a little help on stage with backing tracks and such. Nothing that many bands before them haven’t done.

I love the technical prowess of Arsis, The Black Dahlia Murder, Brain Drill and many others, but when it comes to being memorable, the technicality of these bands will be forgotten in the long run in a sea of other technical bands. Good, memorable riffs are extremely important in the longevity of a band. If a band’s sound doesn’t grab your ears and your heart, it just becomes another band in your “collection” and not your soul.

In all seriousness, if I were ever to start a Black Sabbath tribute band…my stage name would so be TOMMY FUCKING IOMMI!!! Read The London Times Interview and then read Bill Wards word on it.

Image stolen from: TamaDrum.co.jp

To me, Chris not only brings the shredding speed back in to the mix, but a lot of the ultra melodic solos that seemed to be absent after Marty left. Not only that, but he plays them with more accuracy than ANY post-Friemand Megadeth guitarist. It’s kind of toss up for me. On one hand I still love Marty Frieman’s work, but I’m more enthusiastic about what Chris Broderick is bringing to the Megadeth table these days. With that said, check out this video where Marty and Chris play the solo from Tornado Of Souls, and compare. Friemand…or Broderick?

Tales From The Crypt, the popular HBO series released their first movie starring probably one of the worst actors ever; Billy Zane and Thomas Haden Church. Okay, so Billy Zane isn’t that bad and is kind of funny in this flick. Oh, and Jada Pinkett Smith didn’t exactly offer any Oscar material to the movie either. Aside from a cast of mediocre actors, in my opinion, the film was a favorite of mine back then and the soundtrack was filled with veteran and up and coming metal bands.

Pantera offered up a shortened version of Cemetery Gates to start off the mix. Ministry, though I have always hated industrial, contributed Tonight We Murder. Very repetitive and growingly annoying. Machine Head contributed My Misery, followed up with Megadeth‘s Diadems. Both amazing tracks that stand on their own. Diadems is perhaps one of the best singles that Megadeth has ever written for a soundtrack, with Angry Again(Last Action Hero) and 99 Ways To Die (Beavis And Butthead Experience, not a soundtrack) coming in right behind it.

The Melvins added a heavy Instant Larry in to the middle of the soundtrack, which is just a ballsy, raw song. Henry Rollins did the best he could by writing Fall Guy and, well, it sounds like Rollins. Sepultura contributed their cover of Titãs (Brazilian rock band) Policia, which you may also know from Blood Rooted and the Brazilian release of Chaos A.D.

Biohazard contributed Beaten, a Rap infused hardcore song. (I almost forgot) Filter also contributed Hey Man Nice Shot, their hit single from 1995′s Short Bus album. A classic for the ages; I don’t care who you are.

The last song  on the soundtrack was called 1-800-SUICIDE by Gravediggaz. Do I really need to talk about this track? Well, yes. Gravediggaz, an underground hip-hop group were singing about horror type shit, long before two retarded dudes started painting their faces like jackass clowns and rapping about hatchets and Faygo. They had hip-hop-ish names associated with death, a dark, eerie themed sound and even added some humor in to the mix.

Overall, for the time period, Tale From The Crypt Demon Knight soundtrack was a pretty solid soundtrack for a cool movie. I mean, none of these tracks are like Alice Cooper’s He’s Back (The Man Behind The Mask) from Friday the 13th  Part 6 or Dokken’s Dream Warriors from A Nightmare on Elm Street 3, but they stand the test of time.

The Origin Of The Misfits and Danzig Skull.

Since the late 70′s the notorious “Misfits Skull” has been an icon in rock and metal. If you’re a fan of The Misfits or Danzig, then you might already know where it came from. There are a million posers out there in the punk, rock and metal genre that wear this mascot/logo and probably have never heard a Misfits song before in their life. Some don’t even know that it belongs to The Misfits. These are the same people that wear the Led Zeppelin Swan Song T-shirt. All they know is that “It’s cool to like Led Zeppelin” like it’s some kind of trend. It makes me sick when I see that douche from Fall Out Boy with the skull on his sleeve or his lip sinking girlfriend wearing that shirt.

Glenn Danzig, the founder of The Misfits, was a movie buff. He liked older movies, especially the B-Movies. He also loved Marylin Monroe, hence the name of the band named after one of her films. The skull however, came from an old TV serial from 1946 about a mad scientist that set out to steel a device (the cyclotrode) that could short out any electrical current…or something like that. Kind of like a modern day E.M.P. I watched it about 11 years ago and it was tough to sit through. The villain in the movie wore a red, hooded cape or robe if you will, with skeleton hand gloves and the notorious skull mask. It’s a cool looking skull and I think Glenn Danzig turned a cheesy movie villan into an iconic logo in rock.

Glenn didn’t stop there though. When he left The Misfits, he created Samhain. Samhain is an old Gaelic and Brythonic term meaning “Summers End”, It marked the end of the harvest season and was celebrated with aspects of Halloween or the festival of the dead…loosely. Glenn borrowed another symbol from something else he was also into; comic books.

In issue number 8 of Marvel Comics The Saga Of Crystar, Crystal Warrior, you can see the Samhain or Danzig skull (whichever you want to call it) on the cover of this comic book to the left. Through the years the skull has gone through different changes and variations but has been on the cover of 4 out of 8  Danzig album covers and 2 of 3 Samhain albums, not including the live 84-85 album.

So there’s a quick piece of rock/metal history. Next time you see someone that might look like a poser and they are wearing either of these logos, question them. Ask them what the skull is and if they say it’s a Misfits Skull, ask them to name at least three of the band member, past or present. If they can’t, tell them what they are; a fuckin poser!

In the 80′s, when black cassette tapes started being “dubbed” by people, the record industry had a fit and they were afraid that would bring them down. Sure there were people that would bootleg cassettes, but a lot of people just wanted to make compilation or “mix” tapes of their favorite bands. Even after cassettes died out, people were still using blanks to make mix tapes of their favorite bands from cd’s. This went on for quite some time before CD burners for computers hit the market. Again, the music industry freaked out. When cd burners were released, they were very expensive and CD-R’s were not very cheap either. On top of that, not every CD player would play a burned CD. So it took some time for CD-Rs and technology to catch up with itself.

Compilation albums used to be very relevant, especially when it would be albums like the Metal Massacre series. Those albums were great for showcasing underground metal bands. Some of them sucked and some of them, like Metallica, would go on to be huge.

These days, unless it is a label releasing a 4 disc set like 20 Years Of Nuclear Blast, with 15+ tracks on each disc, then I really don’t see the point, from a business perspective. The people that make the compilations, normally have to pay the label the artist is on and the artist too. It would seem that a lot of money would go in to an independent company releasing a compilation album, especially with todays market and digital and illegal downloading. For brain dead pop music fans, this might still be a working business blueprint for the companies releasing compilations like “Now That’s What I call Music”, but I think metal fans are far less likely to buy a compilation album, especially if they already have the songs on an album or on their computer.

Rarities in compilations or soundstracks are a different story, especially with the availability in digital downloads. For example, the upcoming God Of War III video game soundtrack. It has a few artists that I don’t like on it, but I would like to own and hear a few of the tracks. The fact that we can pick and choose from digital downloads totally makes a physical compilation CD irrelevant and obsolete.

Not only are Compilation CDs becoming obsolete but the demand for physical CDs is becoming less and less and most record stores are closing their doors or reducing inventory, sometimes not even ordering a lot of new releases unless they know it will sell like pop/rock.

Some record labels still release compilations as promo CDs to help promote their artist. This is a smart move on their part and a great way for fans to discover artists for free. If you search around, you can find digital promotion compilations from record labels like (This free)  Nuclear Blasts 20th Anniversary Compilation from 2008 or Metal Blades Summer Samplers. SpineLanguage.com also put together a great compilation of Underground Artists, called Tomb Of The Unknowns. Perhaps I’ll even do my own one day, who knows.

So, in short, physical compilations from a business and profit aspect, in my opinion, are goners. Over the next few years, you will see less and less of them in stores or advertised on tv. Digital compilations are still a different story.

Other free comps on Amazon: Armoury Records Sampler.

Now I’m not picking on or disrespecting James Lomenzo here. He’s a great Bass player, but I started to look at his history and images of the like and found it kind of funny. Lomenzo during his White Lion days took on the semi-glammish look of White Lion. No big deal, that was the look back then in bands like that. Then I kind of remembered him in Black Label Society, with David Lee Roth and now Megadeth. Check it out.

James Lomenzo the glamster with White Lion from ‘84 to ‘91. (Second to the left)

James Lomenzo the Biker in Black Label Society from ‘04 to ‘05.

Image via SDMFWorldwide

James Lomenzo in the plain t-shirt and jeans look in Megadeth

Image via Revolvermag

Lastly you can see James Lomenzo playing with Diamond Dave in 2002 in THIS PHOTO. You see the trend here?