Basic format I had in mind for this is I will take an album/EP/Compilation from each of 4 or 5 categories. The categories are basically:
-releases I know I love or really like but want to listen again before ranking and adding,
-releases I have heard before but need a relisten - could be an album I liked or didn't or don't remember at all.
-releases that I have never heard that seem right up my alley, or something I generally have a tendency toward naturally (like a folk album or punk or whatever album) - and this will be broken into some really famous or well known albums like Nick Cave's '88 release, and also one that is less known or rated here and on RYM like some underground industrial album that caught my eye.
- and finally and album I have also never heard that is NOT something I ever or nearly so have any interest or inclination toward - just not my go-to genre or style. For example a House compilation or an old school hip hop album or a (lord help me) a Power Metal album 😄
With that in mind, here we go!
1988 Deep Dive Begins Below!
An album I know and nearly-love but needs a revisit:
Yeah this is great for large swathes. I know that "Fairytale of New York" is to Brits what "All I Want For Christmas Is You" is to Americans (and british and many others too probably), but damn it, I can't help what I love and dammit, THIS SONG IS PERFECT and a masterpiece! Not one single second of that track is less than fantastic and at its best moments its absolutely tingles-inducing, tear-jerking, sentimental glory! I really love it.
Is there any other song here that is on that same level? No. But that is true of basically every album including those I consider near-perfect albums (I don't know if any song on Daydream Nation is as great as Fairytale..., for example). Still, the songs here are some of the best of the genre and the artist and the decade outside of that one standout. The songs of great note are a bit frontloaded, maybe more on that later, but the opening 4 tracks from the glorious title track, to the incredible "Turkish Song of the Damned" to the riled up energetic blast of "Bottle of Smoke", to the greatest song ever... hard to beat that. The 5th track is an instrumental and while cool at times with its horns and its deep bassy piano groove, is a relative downer on the tracklist. And track 6 "Thousands are Sailing" is either way way too sentimental and mawkish or its a tear-jerker of the highest order and a great sequel of sorts to "Fairytale of New York". How it registers depends on my mood obviously.
"Fiesta" is weird and weirdly it works really well. In really am amazed these blokes can make a song like "Fiesta" kick so much as and be so damn charming. After "Fiesta" there are some other cool songs, but I do feel like its first full nut has busted by track list takes a step down after the halfway point. Which means in its first half its ALMOST as great and masterful as Rum Sodomy and The Lash, but the second half is merely a very solid celtic rock/punk album.
Shane is one of the great and most strangely charismatic vocalist who ever lived. I don't know what it is about his drunken croon, but it truly never fails to win me over and make me feel comfortable and in the groove when I hear it. I think this may be the cloest he ever came (and the band in general) to having it all together and sounding not so much like drunken burn outs. Part of me likes him more and the band more when he and they are more struggling and lost and down and dirty and part of me hates that I feel that way, because dammit they are people and I don't want them to be failures or feel like such. Anyway, I'm getting strangely mawkish myself now.
Is this the album that its predecessor is? No and I for one don't think its particularly close. Outside of Fairytale and Turkish Song of the Damned I don't think there is any song here that rivals Waltzing Matilda or Dirty Old Town or The Old Main Drag or I'm A Man You Don't Meet Everyday or or or... also Rum Sodomy and the Lash has a special something, a certain sweep and cohesive vibe that this album lacks. This seems to be an album where the band expands into other new areas, they've cleaned up enough to tackle some ambitious nbew styles and for the most part they do this well, but something else major was lost. If Rum Sodomy and the Lash is a 9-10/10 this is a solid 7.7-8. I really like it. Probably their second best album.
Oh and I forgot to mention, I won't be giving numerical scores anymore or at least I'm going to shy away from it. Something about seeing a 7 or 6.6 or 8,1 next to an album just rubs me the wrong way. Instead I'll talk about it and rank it at the end of a blast of albums and thoughts and you can see somewhat what my relative opinion is of the album.
-----------
An album relisten, but of an album I wasn't sure if I liked it or actually couldn't remember the details of before relistening:
I love this album. How can a band take the slacker vibe of melodic skate hardcore punk and the coiled tight thundering chops of thrash and the swagger of like Guns N Roses or (at times) Motorhead, with the surprising genuine emotion and heart all its own and mix it and make a goddamn killer Thrash/Hardcore crossover album? Well, I don't know, but Suicidal Tendencies did it here. The old school hardcore of their debut is still in the pores of this album. But it also sounds like the members of the band had been listening to Spreading The Disease and Kill Em All on repeat in the 3 years leading up to the writing and recording of this album. They have absolute chugging, meaty hardcore bangers like "Trip At the Brain" here. They have ballads to make Metallica grin appreciatively in the glorious and badass title track here. They have some Anthraxy classic thrash in the form of "Hearing Voices" or "Pledge Your Allegiance" here in spades. And what can I say about perhaps the best song here, "Suicyo Mania"? The riffs are so perfect and ballsy and badass and the songwriting is killer all the way through. The anthemic playful fun of "Surf and Slam" is perfect for keeping this album grounded and never going full angsty, agitated, suicidal, manic depressive heaviness subject-wise. The inclusion of lighter bangers like that make for a strangely brilliant reflection of the attitude of lost and unstable young men, one minute asking if suicide is the answer and the next moment saying "Fuck it, let's go surf". Brilliant.
There are actually some soft and sweet melodies mixed in on songs like, again, the incredible title track, and on "The Miracle", "If I don't Wake Up" (and that song slows shit down for some seriously touching emotional expressiveness which I wasn't expecting in this crossover thrash album), and others. The guitar solos are mostly stellar as well, and surprisingly expressive and restrained and the solos that close the album on the badass closing track "The Feeling's Back" are particularly tasty.
Overall, I love what this album manages to do and I think you can't execute a mix of hardcore and thrash much better than this. Its equal parts Black Flag existential self hatred, Anthrax-esque thumping chugging classic thrash riffage, and Circle Jerks-ish cali stoned and lost and nonchalant teenage angst fun. I didn't ecxpect I would listen 3 times straight and learn to love this album and band all over again.
Their 1990 album Lights, Camera Revolution is similarly excellent. But its been a long while since I heard it so I am stoked to go nibble on that release soon.
-----------------
NEW listen but a new listen that seems interesting and I think is relatively well known:
Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.
You Made Me Realise by My Bloody Valentine
Okay, so I lied. I have heard this. A couple times actually. But... I have never listened to this absolutely ICONIC Ep in isolation. I bought on day of release (like a good little music snob) that release a "few" years back of all the MBV EPs on CD and I listened to it. But in that format I would be lying iof I could tell ever when one release ended and another began. So, listening to this EP and this release AS its own thing in isolation is important I think and I am glad I listened to this newly in such a way.
Okay, so another thing, this EP, its so famous. Like I think maybe if we did some big poll or game amongst BEAers and got top 10-20 EPs ever from them and scored it I am pretty sure this would be number 1. When I personally think of classic EPs a few come to mind: This, Jar of Flies (Alice In Chains), Chronic Town (REM), Kindred EP (Burial) and maybe Fugazi's first EP. Actually, the first thing I think of is the greatest EP ever made Sometimes The Blues Is A Passing Bird by The Tallest Man On Earth, but that a ME thing methinks. Anyway, just a thought I had as I heard this massively influential and cool piece of music.
As for my thoughts on the EP... its fantastic. This is coming from someone who generally does not vibe with Dream Pop, Noise Pop or Shoegaze. It took a dozen listens to earn a well-deserved grudging respect for Loveless for chrissake. That said, this EP ain't Loveless. Like the bones of Loveless are here, and this for sure seems like a bridge between Isn't Anything and Loveless in the MBV discog, but yeah this release has parts that rock in a near-traditional way, with discernible riffs and clear and up-front vocals and melodies. Everything isn't utterly swamped in OCEANS of layered guitars to even a 10th the degree every song on Loveless is. The first song, the title track, for example... HOLY SHIT! At first I was thinking maybe I wasn't digging it. Then second time through this 17 minute release I was blown away and the melody and the explosive noisy burst which sounds like pink and pruple glass shards raining down from the heavens above, absolutely overtook me. An easy all time song in the genre (based off the admittedly small amount of this genre I have heard.). It is stellar.
"slow" has that very Loveless-reminiscent back and forth, rocking from sidfe to side, guitar riff that stays the whole way through... but whereas on Loveless this same sound would be overlayed with 57 other sounds and the vocals would be 19 feet beneath sea level coming through in vaguely intelligible, smoky wafts, here the vocals and the melody they carry are right there.
"thorn" has a bubblegummy melody and a free-ing vibe,and for some reason it sounds like some kind of lost theme-song to my mostly forgotten first true love, I can almost see her face and I can almost pronounce her name, but never quite and yet this song is just a (noisy) breeze. That is another thing about these songs... they are noisy and they are jagged and they are rough in many ways and yet never does the noise sound bad and never does the static convey the emotions i usually associate with staticy noisy music - namely, seething hate, death, death , decay, more death etc - instead they work for these pristine pop songs and I don't know exactly why they work so well.
"cigarette in your bed" is a sweet song, the most lowkey and least noisy or rocking here. I think it will grow on me more but for now this is ONLY very good and a nice vibe. But the EP ends with the fabulous "Drive It All Over Me". fuck this song kicks ass! The female vocals (I think they are, not the same vocalist as the first few songs) is mesmerizing and the whole groove and melody of the track kills and that damn explosive eargasmic pay off is stellar.
OVERALL I am floored and won over. One of the great things about EPs especially great and consistent and challenging ones such as this, they are a small dose of greatness, with no filler and yet lots to chew on emotionally and mentally. I am now listening to this for a 3rd time, and yeah it just gets better. Perhaps I will "penalize" this a little in the rankings due to it being an EP, but I'm thinking I won't punish it much. Is it my genre of choice? Well, before pushing play a little under an hour ago I would have said no. But at some point and at times there are releases that are just so damn transcendent as to basically make you forget about scenes and music genre descriptions. This is one of those times. Fucking classic.
Looking forward to FINALLY giving Isn't Anything the time and consideration it deserves. Certainly one of the first LPs I think of first when I think of 1988.
----------------------
Another new listen in a genre somewhat within my wheelhouse of stuff I have an interest in BUT this one will be less well known... Let's see... OH THIS LOOKS WEIRD and COOL:
Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.
You Must Be Certain Of The Devil by Diamanda Galás
Okay so this woman is fascinating and also not some super or particularly unknown nor undreground artist. But she is new to me. Had no idea what to expect when I pushed play. Its wild. the opening track of A cappella opera is recorded in such a way that when I am not being blown out of my head by the sheer audacity and brilliant virtuosity of the vocals, I am being mindfucked by the way the mics will sort of push the notes around and engulf my ears from several directions. I am no music expert lol and I don't know what exactly is being done to create this disoriuenting and brilliant effect, but hot damn its cool. This opener (titled "Swing Low Sweet Chariot") is followed up by a menacing, experimental beast of a track called "Double-Barrel Prayer" which, again, is beastly. Its so dark and twisted. It has no comparison in my mind right now.
After this very VERY intoxicating 1-2 punch to start, I feel the album goes to more predictable or at least less interesting places and tracks 3, 4 and 5 are just a step down in terms of mind-bending, experimental brilliance. There are a couple almost blues tracks in there and a track called "Birds of Death" which is a dark brooding thing. They are fine but not much else.
The track "Let My People Go" continues the piano blues which I didn't love in those middle cuts but it works here. It is ghostly and cold and demented and pissed-thefuck-off. The vibe is somewhat similar to recent Lingua Ignota album, only slightly - insofar as you have a maverick, deeply creative, classically trained, female experimental genius absolutely going off and belting uncompromising avant-garde somewhat religiously oriented music. (When I put it that way there are some legit similarities... but really the genres are fundementally different... I'm just saying maybe you will like this track if you dig Ignota).
Track 7 "Malediction" has an absolutely atrocious 80s drum sound and some other things going on that undermine it. But Galas' vocals are their usual wild goodness. She is punk rock as fuck and mad as hell here and the free and improvised jazzy piano runs are dope. - but, amn I wish that that fucking drum machine was gone. Its bad.
"The Lord Is My Sheperd" ends the album. just like the opener, its an A cappela piece and ... yeah i'll admit, its just weird and demented. She's like playing with a creepy singing style where she is breathing in and making these demented noises and sounds and notes. Weird. I can't say I totally bought oin and I don't think it's a fraction the powerhouse that the album opened with, but its cool and unique at least.
Apparently this is the 3rd album in what is regarded as a Trilogy of albums. This is my first introduction to Galas, and maybe I should have started with her debut, 2nd release or her first album in this trilogy of sorts from 1986 (it has the highest avg rating on RYM it seems). But as far as new experiences and new artists and new sounds go, this was a hoot. I may not have loved all of it and not liked a few tracks, but the general take away was this artist is a brilliant, uncompromising experiemntal queen and I am glad artists like this exist to sort of reset my expectations and try to give me utterly new musical byroads to venture down.
Yeah I think I will earmark this musician so to speak and listen to more of her music in the future.
-------------------------------
A new listen in a genre or style that is really not at all my go-to:
Okay, so because that last Diamanda Galas album was really outside my usual go-to genre zone, I have decided to be a trickster. Here I will put a very underground Demo by a Texas Death/Thrash band called Blood Spill. This is 3 tracks, 27 minutes. It's noisy, chaotic, gloriously and "freeingly" raw, its lo-fi, its demented and ghostly (probably due in no small part to simply the recording quality of the album - sounds like it was recorded in a literal garage, if a garage that is pretty well set up) and I just find this album sick and charming. Nothing else was ever heard from these guys. They just came out and put forth a demo of 3 ntruly engaging, tormented, somewhat blackened, mid tempo atmospheric death/thrash/black/extreme metal which kicked fucking ass and rumbled and roarted and screamed in equal glorious measure, I assume never got a call back from interested labels and called it quits. Sad and tragic really.
This is the kind of discovery (its only on youtube that I have found) that makes me think about and romanticize about all those great bands that never even sniffed a record deal not to mention any real success. Sad but also kind of magical. Like you can go down any city street or suburban neighborhood and know that there was probably at one point some ill-fated aspiring musical career that bloomed here. The ghosts of unrealized dreams haunt every square inch of this world. Which, come to think of it, is kind of the aura and atmosphere that some of more anguished bits of this album conjure up in my mind.
Anyway, if you like early slayer, old school filthy and ragged death/black/thrash, if you like the rawer and more rugged and unpolished side of underground extreme metal, give this album a listen and a like. It's surprisingly good to borderline cult-great.
-----------------------
Okay and that is all for this initial blast of various 1988 albums. The list is now 15 and it looks like this with the new entries bolded: (oh and the descending groups idicate somewhat tiers from GREAT/MASTERPIECE, to Very Very good to Good, to kind of okay/enjoyable/somewhat meh, to not good but not exactly terrible, to kind of bad.
1. Daydream Nation by Sonic Youth
2. Spirit of Eden by Talk Talk
3. Leprosy by Death
4. you made me realise EP by My Bloody Valentine
5. How Will I Laugh Tomorrow… by Suicidal Tendencies
6. If I Should Fall From Grace With God by The Pogues
7. Miss America by Mary Margaret O'Hara
8. Green by R.E.M.
9. …And Justice For All by Metallica
10. Demo by Blood Spill
11. Slow Turning by John Hiatt
12. The Trinity Session by Cowboy Junkies
13. You Must Be Certain of the Devil by Diamanda Galas
14. Rattle & Hum by U2
15. Down In The Groove by Bob Dylan _________________ -Ryan
I love this album. How can a band take the slacker vibe of melodic skate hardcore punk and the coiled tight thundering chops of thrash and the swagger of like Guns N Roses or (at times) Motorhead, with the surprising genuine emotion and heart all its own and mix it and make a goddamn killer Thrash/Hardcore crossover album? Well, I don't know, but Suicidal Tendencies did it here. The old school hardcore of their debut is still in the pores of this album. But it also sounds like the members of the band had been listening to Spreading The Disease and Kill Em All on repeat in the 3 years leading up to the writing and recording of this album. They have absolute chugging, meaty hardcore bangers like "Trip At the Brain" here. They have ballads to make Metallica grin appreciatively in the glorious and badass title track here. They have some Anthraxy classic thrash in the form of "Hearing Voices" or "Pledge Your Allegiance" here in spades. And what can I say about perhaps the best song here, "Suicyo Mania"? The riffs are so perfect and ballsy and badass and the songwriting is killer all the way through. The anthemic playful fun of "Surf and Slam" is perfect for keeping this album grounded and never going full angsty, agitated, suicidal, manic depressive heaviness subject-wise. The inclusion of lighter bangers like that make for a strangely brilliant reflection of the attitude of lost and unstable young men, one minute asking if suicide is the answer and the next moment saying "Fuck it, let's go surf". Brilliant.
There are actually some soft and sweet melodies mixed in on songs like, again, the incredible title track, and on "The Miracle", "If I don't Wake Up" (and that song slows shit down for some seriously touching emotional expressiveness which I wasn't expecting in this crossover thrash album), and others. The guitar solos are mostly stellar as well, and surprisingly expressive and restrained and the solos that close the album on the badass closing track "The Feeling's Back" are particularly tasty.
Overall, I love what this album manages to do and I think you can't execute a mix of hardcore and thrash much better than this. Its equal parts Black Flag existential self hatred, Anthrax-esque thumping chugging classic thrash riffage, and Circle Jerks-ish cali stoned and lost and nonchalant teenage angst fun. I didn't ecxpect I would listen 3 times straight and learn to love this album and band all over again.
Their 1990 album Lights, Camera Revolution is similarly excellent. But its been a long while since I heard it so I am stoked to go nibble on that release soon.
Okay, so because that last Diamanda Galas album was really outside my usual go-to genre zone, I have decided to be a trickster. Here I will put a very underground Demo by a Texas Death/Thrash band called Blood Spill. This is 3 tracks, 27 minutes. It's noisy, chaotic, gloriously and "freeingly" raw, its lo-fi, its demented and ghostly (probably due in no small part to simply the recording quality of the album - sounds like it was recorded in a literal garage, if a garage that is pretty well set up) and I just find this album sick and charming. Nothing else was ever heard from these guys. They just came out and put forth a demo of 3 ntruly engaging, tormented, somewhat blackened, mid tempo atmospheric death/thrash/black/extreme metal which kicked fucking ass and rumbled and roarted and screamed in equal glorious measure, I assume never got a call back from interested labels and called it quits. Sad and tragic really.
This is the kind of discovery (its only on youtube that I have found) that makes me think about and romanticize about all those great bands that never even sniffed a record deal not to mention any real success. Sad but also kind of magical. Like you can go down any city street or suburban neighborhood and know that there was probably at one point some ill-fated aspiring musical career that bloomed here. The ghosts of unrealized dreams haunt every square inch of this world. Which, come to think of it, is kind of the aura and atmosphere that some of more anguished bits of this album conjure up in my mind.
Anyway, if you like early slayer, old school filthy and ragged death/black/thrash, if you like the rawer and more rugged and unpolished side of underground extreme metal, give this album a listen and a like. It's surprisingly good to borderline cult-great.
🥰
Um. How in hell did u find this?! This is AMAZING shit!!! 😈
MercuryTurn your back on the pay-you-back last callProfile St. Louis
first off yep, I love that damned badass Suicidal Tendencies album. Glad we share that appreciation!
second off, fuck yeah, that Carcass debut is so sick and putrified and sickening, terribly recorded, insane, as raw as raw gets. I plan on revisiting soon. I do find Carcass incredible - the way they made these technical and record production on every album from '88 to '93 (shamefully haven't heard swansong).
As for Blood Spill, fucking glad you checked it out! It's awesome, indeed! How do I find thbese? Well, it isn't cool, like "well, y'know, I was at a hardcore show and ran into some cool dudes who said they used to be members of this band when they were kids called "Blood Spill" and handed me an old dusty demo tape they had in their trunk" lol. I just looked over a couple thousand 1988 albums and read descriptions of 'em and made a spreadsheet of the 25-300 most intriguing or essential, and then went over that list and searched youtube for it. I'm glad I checked it out at random amongst the hundreds of other choices.
-------------------
@Luigii, thank you my friend. My secret is just write down thoughts I have on music even when the thoughts are stupid and silly and go wherever it goes, with the flow, you know. Your writing is fabulous and more efficient than mine. 😄 _________________ -Ryan
Jesus christ, I have seen the light! How could I have come so close to going fully astray?? I am repentant!
What I mean to say is if someone had asked me my opinion on THIS PARTICULAR Slayer "Classic" just week back before I gave it a few spins and revisits, I may have mentioned it and it's classic status with those annoying quote fingers on the word "classic". I would have said that after the unparalleled and unmatched metal genius that was Reign In Blood(truly if I took every single hard rock and metal album I ever heard and put the top 100 in a competition for my favorite, almost assuredly Reign In Blood would come out the winner)and before the genuine power and new decade dominance of Seasons in the Abyss, that this album represented a somewhat significant step down. I would have even said that this album pulled back on the gas far too much and that something massive was lost when they decided to chisel these songs to such a sheen (not that that is how chisels work ... but I digress) and slow things down. Man, what silliness. I am NOT saying this is the EQUAL of Seasons In The Abyss and heaven's not Reign In Blood, but its clear that at this time and during this stretch Slayer was kind of in a metal tier all their own, or at the very least the company they kept was so small as to account for a tiny club you could fit in the small corner at the back of a library. Death? Sure. Bathory? Okay, fine. Metallica? No, I think after the tragic loss of Burton, Metallica was not on Slayer's level. Anthrax? Not close and Anthrax was never the band Slayer was in my opinion. Napalm Death? Yes, I think so but in a radically different way! And Megadeth and Sepultera and Carcass weren't there YET and probably never quite made it. Of course I am ignoring Maiden, and I can't do that even if they never were not one of my personal faves. Slayer were on the mountaintop, playing poker with a small and rarefied few peers. And I, ME, TINY HUMANOID me of all people, had the AUDACITY to question 1988 SLAYER's brilliance?? disgusting and shameful I say.
Okay, so for this album its well known that Slayer slowed it down a bit. They decided quite smartly that it would be silly to try to one-up in speed, aggression and insane intensity Reign In Blood. That said, this is still a Thrash Metal album. It just happens to be a Thrash album more precisely written and performed, dripping with blood and grime and dead-eyed assuredness and momentum. Any album that can begin and end with the twin masterpieces "South of Heaven" and "Spill the Blood", is off to a bloody great start - these bookends really are representative of the whole ominous, powerful, brilliance of the whole album. The fact that in between these 2 are a series of songs which includes classic after classic, such as "Mandatory Suicide", "Ghosts of War", "Dissident Aggressor", "Behind The Crooked Cross" and "Live Undead" to name a few, is absurd. (lol that isn't a "few" - that's almost every song and really there is a case for every song being mentioned as I personally don't hear a remotely average song)
The whole band kills. I mean really really kills. The drumming of Dave Lombardo is so great as to be worthy of descriptions like "Transcendent" and "awe-inspiring" and the fact that his drumming is so consistently crisp, inspired, heavy, groovy, mind-blowing and iconic makes me wish I could go back in time and DRASTICALLY limit my use of such words when describing other albums, musicians and drummers on other posts. He's THAT great. The twin guitar attack and the riffs in particular are their usual chainsaw attacking, body blowing, headbangy selves, but with this album they are even more purposeful than on Reign In Blood and Hell Awaits. They are stellar. The SOLOS are those scary and influential, satanic and sinister, almost atonal air raid siren explosions that any Slayer fan or anyone who has heard Slayer even a little will instantly recognize. They are great. The bass playing kicks ass and the vocals by the bassist/vocalist Tom Araya are more constrained and intense and there are far fewer wailing screams - which is a good thing. If there was one weakness on Reign In Blood it was Araya's vocals (but there isn't any flaw on that album so ignore I said that).
The only things I can say negative in the slightest about this album are 1. the transitions sometimes sound a little wooden and awkward and 2. the production sounds a little too austere and empty, again, only a few times. This issue shows up only a few times and its debatable. But to my ears there are just a couple switch ups that sound...off and there are a couple times when there is a distinct lack of production punch when the production maybe is too dry and the guitars are just not there and these moments are less than ideal.
I see this 1988 album as being somewhat analogous to the Pogues' If I Should Fall From Grace With God insofar as its a great album following on the footsteps of a truly all time great album. Both bands did major changes to their sound while maintaining the genre and thus not going tooooo far astray. The Pogues went BIGGER and more put together, Slayer went slower (with obvious exceptions, track 2 is as fast and hard as anything on their predecessor) and they went a bit more creepy, ominous, atmospheric by and large. Both switch ups in sound were good, Slayer's though was more than fine. It made for a near-perfect album that yet distanced itself from its more famous predecessor.
It's also kind of cool that within JUST 2 years of the release of Reign In Blood, which had completely raised the bar in terms of metal heaviness and speed (along with, to a lesser degree, Kreator's album of the same year, Pleasure to Kill) there were already HORDES of grindy, deathy insane fucks coming around to take Slayer up on the challenge and mantle for more aggression, gore, speed, heaviness and that utterly uncompromising non-commercial attitude about extreme metal. So what does Slayer do but say "Okay, kids, have at it. That game is yours. You're welcome." and went and did their own thing.
Anyway, I love this album and I can't stop listening! I am finding it hard to move off of it.
Edit added later: for some reason I wanted to mention - just in case kokkinos or other non-metal fan is reading this - I think maybe I recommend this to you. It's just very approachable while still being metal as fuck. anyway, pretty insignificant little note but i remembered i wanted to say this but felt i was going on too long and left it.
-----------
An album re-listen, but of an album I wasn't sure if I liked it or actually couldn't remember the details of before re-listening:
Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.
Cinema Paradiso: Original Soundtrack Recording by Ennio Morricone
I liked this. Even within a short 36 or so run time I won't lie I got tired of hearing the same bitter sweet nostalgic motif/theme. Still, I love the movie and I love the images this album and this music conjures in my head. I am not sure if this would have been particularly great to me had I not the earnestly sad and somber and nostalgic story and film to fill in the gaps between all these floating notes. But anyway, the point is its solid and excellent classical type stuff. I also will say I have way WAAAAY less to say about this music and this style than I do Slayer's album or basically any album. I have a hard time saying anything of substance or even pulling stiuff out of thin air when I speak on soundtracks, Jazz, Classical, or Hip Hop. Not sure why. I just get self conscious.
Anyway, this is REALLY sweet and I recommend it somewhat. But I actually and truly recommend watching the film this is a soundtrack to. IT is a stunning work of art.
-----------------
NEW listen but a new listen that seems interesting and I think is relatively well known:
oh god... I needed this. Some of the earliest stuff that mixes hardcore punk with grindcore and creating, thus, the genre Powerviolence. The vocals and the undisciplined, manic, raging bull fury is squarely in the BEST of old school hardcore. The buzzsaw guitars and absurd speed and 20 second songs are very VERY early grindcore. This is some cartoonishly aggressive shit right here, like its 18 tracks over 16 minutes of the dead kennedys when the DKs were their most unhinged and fastest but sped up a bit from that and just as cartoony and zany and much angrier and yeah there isn't much to say: if you like hardcore punk, grindcore, crust punk, Powerviolence and you are curious what very very early grind and powerviolence was like, listen to this album and band asap. It kicks ass.
----------------------
Another new listen in a genre somewhat within my wheelhouse of stuff I have an interest in BUT this one will be less well known... Let's see... OH THIS LOOKS WEIRD and COOL:
RYM did me dirty lol. The artist description/Bio is so damn intriguing! A reclusive oddball who goes by the name Jandek has been a mystery and an enigma to the world since 1978 and has been releasing home recorded, strange artifacts yearly or twice yearly ever since? sign me up! Oh and the genre description is Blues Rock and Blues and acoustic Blues, key word: BLUES! You know me, I was practically salivating! plus experimental rock was mentioned and that was just devilish teasing for me.
Then I pushed play and ... it sounds (to me) like mostly maundering, aimless, doodle dallying on a guitar and unstructured melodies and seemingly non-sensical ramblings by a lonely and eccentric (probably quite lovely) man... It doesn't help either that the first say 18 minutes of this 43 minute album catches hold of nothing of note. I almost gave up right when some cool stuff happened. I understand the interest and fascination with this style and if you want to hear a precursor to Smog/Bill Callahan and a peer of Daniel Johnston do somewhat a mix of those 2 musicians' sounds and if this DIY obscurity in music and notoriety interests you maybe you'll like it. I didn't particularly enjoy it. But yeah it's alright. Oh and "BLUES ROCK"?!? there's a bare minimum of Blues and next to no Rock here and never the 2 do meet. Certainly if you think to yourself of what your idea of Blues Rock is right now, what comes to mind? Cream maybe, or Zeppelin? Maybe some Clapton/Mayal cut from '66 or some White Stripes? well, yeah I am right there with you if you say that. Now listen to this and see if any part of this seems to remotely be that.
Okay, so there are some standouts: The track halfway in called "The Way That You Act" captured some rambling, fever-dreamy state with some ACTUALLY bluesy guitar and it was kind of psychedelic and the moaning, mad-man vocals reminded me of something off Oar by Skip Spence. "Quinn Boys II" had moments of groove and I liked it somewhat. Oh and "When The Telephone Melts" is scratching right AROUND something cool - its sooo sad and down in the dumps, so aimless and weepy, it is alright. But even this wears out its welcome. Still - the guitar noodling at the end is APPROACHING blues guitar jamming.
It's a bummer cuz if I'd liked this I would have like 50 other albums to check out! Oh well... Okay, that's all I'll say about this.
-------------------------------
Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.
By All Means Necessary by Boogie Down Productions
Old school, pre-'93 hip hop is mostly miss for me. At least, as of this moment that is the case. At some point I'll add the great 1988 masterpiece from PE on my '88 chart. But first I want to listen to this. I am positive I have heard this once years ago but I honestly can't remember a single note. So, considering my respect for KRS-One and that album cover, I decided to make this the first '88 hip hop album to cover.
As I mentioned earlier I have a hard time writing about Hip Hop or describing what I like or don't like about these albums. Why that is is hard to pin down. I'm a diletante, well, about music in general, but especially when it comes to hip hop - I simply do not know the nomenclature nor the subtle stylistic differences between tracks and artists in this genre. Same issue with anything classical and jazz. Basically I feel like a moron talking about Hank Mobley or Brahms or Ultramagnetic MCs. But I still will try.
I like this album. KRS is awesome. His delivery here is so erratic and charismatic and assured. The beats here are so incredibly min imal and austere. There is simply a skeletal beat and a cool bass line and a little sampled guitar part or sampled vocal and over top this is the rapper. At its best this stripped down sound makes for a stink-face inducing groove, one which just sounds so fucking sick even 33 years-and-counting years later. My head can't help but bob, my face can't help but give a little sneer, and I can't help but listen close to the turns of phrase and words of KRS. I think is a pretty early example of Conscious Hip Hop, maybe one of the first albums of that description. And that's great. It's not only a nice sounding album but a groundbreaking one. Nice.
"My Philosophy" is a great opener and sets the stage nicely for this album. It probably is the best track, but its hard to say. Certainly a stand out. The funky bass that comes in and grinds on my ears on "Nervous" is fucking cool as shit simple as that, even if the rest of the song outside the bass line is kinda meh and doesn't really blow my mind. "Stop The Violence" has a cool groove, and the beat is a style I don't know the name of but it just has a breeziness and style I love... let me go google what the fuck that familiar style is generally called so I can sound smart and like I can spot other musical elements and name drop them... okay, hey its me again and I have no idea. It's all good. The lyrics are cool as well. "I'm Still #1" is a banger, the beat is cold and hard as fuck and I like it a lot.
"SIDE B" is a relative let down. Less inspired and really just no "My Philosophy" to pull it up. Generally somewhat dope and assured old school hip hop. The flows are alright and I'm sure for its time this was some cutting edge shit. "Jimmy" sucks and "Necessary" is a pretty damn strange way to end the album and it doesn't do anything for me.
Okay, so "final" verdict, this was good. I don't honestly think this is one I will return to. It is better than just a dusty history lesson and there are some songs I like here. It just doesn't remotely hit me like It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back, perhaps I am showing my lack of knowledge on this era of hip hop by comparing it to PE again, but for now that is my main reference point. So, anyway, this was a good fine listen.
-----------------------
Okay, we are up to 20 albums in 1988! Here is how this looks (side note: this very very soon will become bothersome to stick on every post update especially when I get to like 100 and you have to scroll for 5 minutes. But whatever we will cross or ignore that bridge when we get there):
Daydream Nation by Sonic Youth
South of Heaven by Slayer
Spirit of Eden by Talk Talk
Leprosy by Death
you made me realise - EP by My Bloody Valentine
How Will I Laugh Tomorrow… by Suicidal Tendencies
If I Should Fall From Grace With God by The Pogues
Miss America by Mary Margaret O'Hara
Green by R.E.M.
…And Justice For All by Metallica
Demo by Blood Spill
Slow Turning by John Hiatt
Slave by Infest
Cinema Paradiso Score/OST by Ennio Morricone
The Trinity Session by Cowboy Junkies
You Must Be Certain of the Devil by Diamanda Galas
Rattle & Hum by U2
By All Means Necessary by Boogie Down Productions
Down In The Groove by Bob Dylan
You Walk Alone by Jandek _________________ -Ryan
Different system, I think I will make this post a bit more stuff I am revisiting and less stuff I just have no interest in or are new to me.... we shall see. Like there are 10 great albums I am itching to add to my 88 chart and restraint is not my best trait.
Perhaps it doesn't come through in my internet persona/presentation, but I'm something of a romantic. I'd even say hopeless romantic at times. When not being bogged down with the toil of work and family and politics and conflict and all this noise, this incessant, ugly, roiling, sickening noise, when I have a moment to think and/or to drink a little, I have moments when it hits me. Some face or some long dead and gone exchange or some fleeting moment of clarity will overcome me and leave me on the verge of weeping. What could have been? And what made that moment stick in my mind for 5 or 10 or 20 or 25 years? I get ideas about love and spiritual connection and sometimes these moments of reflection last quite awhile, an hour or 2. Then I sleep and wake up and just head first into that incessant concatenation of distractions and struggles and beefs and wins and loses.
It its best and when I am in my best state of mind to hear this album, this album conveys that sad and unsteady and hopeful and romantic feeling in my gut. When I'm not in a good place to hear this album, some of the sweet jangling, melodically cute power of this album is lost on me. I think this variety of reaction explains my relationship with this album. When I first heard this album it bowled me over. It caught me at a moment in my life of reflection and love. This album went to the top 10 of my chart and was there for awhile and when that state-of-mind wore off a little I still kept it top 20. Then some time a few months ago it left my chart altogether and I would have said that this album is solid and recommended at best if I was asked. Then I did my huge update of charts last month and I saw this and was aghast that this wasn't on my chart and I added it at a nice conservative middle part of the chart. Now I am relistening and I am of 2 minds even now.
Some tracks here are perfect and even if I am in a particularly gnarly or very logical state of mind, I will without fail feel my heart flutter a bit. Those songs of such towering excellence are 3 in number: the opener "Love Goes On!", the undeniable pop brilliance of "Streets of Your Name" and, most of all, the absolute stunner and love song to end all love songs, "Quiet Heart".
The other tracks are consistently quite pretty. While the vocals and the melodies are at times a bit cloying or hit the slightly wrong note for me, the general expression and flow of these songs and this album works really, really fucking well. And despite not being a big fan of Jangle Pop and what passes for cool sophisti pop or jangle pop or indie pop or things of this nature, this one does it for me. If those 3 stand out masterpiece tracks weren't here or if they were about average for this album, I would say this would be a good solid album which wouldn't sniff my overall chart and probably even my 80s chart.
But... with the bass lines and jangling intensity of the opener, the incredibly catchy and timeless brilliance of "Streets of Your Town" and the utter and completely gutting of my soul that "Quiet Heart" represents, this album is lifted majorly.
That is all I will say about this revisit. It won't be top top top of my 1988 chart, and perhaps it will lose its place my overall chart after this revisit, but damn that doesn't change that this album is great and its there for me the next time I feel the world around me settle and I get some inkling of a thought or a vision of someone special and I want to listen to something and vibe and think deeply of love and connection.
-----------
ANOTHER album I love that I just have a gut feeling needs a revisit ASAP:
Perhaps it doesn't come through in my internet persona/presentation, but I'm something of a furious, hateful, raging mad man. Mostly not, but not going to lie and say I don't moments when every muscle is tensed and I am in a rage about the disposition of EVERY person on EVERY topic in EVERY way. There are times when I want to tear the whole thing down. Actually as someone with a particularly anarchic worldview, this isn't uncommon. But when that anarchy is raging and not logical, I turn to Napalm Death and Pig Destroyer and Wormrot and Nasum and other great prophets of Grind. But, last night I revisit this and I was tired so I laid down, closed my eyes and turned this up as loud as possible and I enjoyed myself immensely not being angry at all. Actually, weirdly, this absurdly loud and fast and cartoonishly unhinged Grind classic relaxed me as I rested my eyes. wtf...? Anyway, it did and I just wanted to say that so you understand my love of Grind and the godfathers and kings of grind, Napalm Death, doesn't come exclusively from a place of deep-seated hatred of authority and society.
This album... I placed it on my overall chart and I think I did because its a stand in for what Napalm Death represents to me and music and my music tastes. They are, again and it should be clearly stated, the absolute kings of this most profoundly awesome of genre of extreme metal and hardcore pushed to its logical extreme. They are special. That said, Scum isn't one of my fave albums - but maybe I need to revisit that debut now that I have so much more stuff under my belt. But I remember that album sounding more like a call to arms and a new abrasive, extremely brazen intro statement more than a great album. Okay, so their second album is this album here - with a badass name and a badass sound. Is this a great album? Yes. Is it better than Scum? I think so. Is it as pure of an expression of Grind as their debut? Not at all, as there are death metal jams thrown in and lots of more crust/hardcore punk passages, and *gasp* some 2-3 minute songs here. So then you have what many consider the definitive statement of intent and the peak of Napalm Death, The Peel Sessions of 1987-1988. These are more clearly recorded than their debut, and more unhinged and more purely grindcore than this sophomore LP. And... they are incredible. I may add them to my chart to replace this album.
That last paragraph was utterly shit and pointless. The point is this album, which I'm listening to again now, is so fucking great. The guitars and the bass are absolutely disgusting and evil and bad-intentioned. The vocals whether the warbly ridiculousness or the growly ridiculopusness are all ridiculous and the weakest aspect of the sound... and yet, Idk, I kind of love'em. They sort of make me smile and feel at home in a way. I don't know why but they are great. The drummer is doing his best and his best is great. He is mostly keeping up the whole way and sometimes its the guitars that struggle to keep up. The whole sound especially when truly raging and in a groove sounds like 5 fucking wild people running at top speed, wearing themselves down to death or near-death, trying to keep up with each other and all are mostly going the same absurd reckless speed and wometimes one of them will get a burst of speed and go a little ahead and the rest see this and just somehow dredge up a little more energyu and push extremel;y hard to even out the race... and this goes on and on and on for 27 tracks and 35 minutes. Its glorious. I am evben feeling the same effect as i listen. I am typing gfaster and notcie all the typos? that is just the result of me, not a trained typist, doing my best to keep up with 1. my thoughts icoherent as they may be and 2. this absurd fucking music! Thje aburd, rejuvenating, lovely, gift of an album is making me very happy.
Is this my fave Napalm Death now? nevermind, fuck that question and answerr shit, i already did that! Thsi IS my fave Napalm Death release as of now. This is NOT my fave grindcore album (Pig Destroyer and Wormrot are up there with this being 3rd or 4th or so). This is indeed a marvelous album that needs to be heard by all, especially old old grandmothers and fathers with heart issues asap!
Oh and listen to the genius of the track 1-2 punch of "Your Achievement" followed by "Dead" to get a clear idea of how rich and genius this album is! Well worth your time. 😁
-----------------
Another revisit this time of an EP and a release I don't have a history of LOVING but respecting the fuck out of
Perhaps it doesn't come through in my internet persona/presentation, but I USED to be a bit of a punk myself. Of course when I think about it and look at things as they currently stand, I am not so punk rock these days. There was a time I saw myself as some great, vibrant, young exemplar of those Minor Threat straight edge anthems. I sometimes like to think back on those 13 and 14 year old memories. The recollections are seen through rosy glasses. If I really went back to how I felt at the time, I may not romanticize it so much. I was an overly angry and victim-y whiny kid. But man did I love punk shows and my mohawk and my military jackets. When I see photos of myself back then I grimace. I was a corndog.
Now when I hear this album or EP, I to some degree do get flashbacks to those days. That sounds a little condescending, because these are much deeper and more intellectual and talented adults making this. And the fans of this sound and aesthetic and music are far from stupid teenage ass holes like I was. But there is something in the intensity and passion in the duel vocal onslaught of Ian and Guy on this - with the blunt force unadorned cool of Ian offset by the warbly, passionate, emotive Guy creating some musical magic - that just makes me reminisce. That said, did I listen to much Fugazi back in those days? No not at all. I was a Minor Threat and Circle Jerks kind of guy musically. I liked the teenagers in those records and I liked the pure energy and I just wasn't in the punk rock headspace to indulge much in so called Post hardcore music. So despite the fact that now when I listen to say the coiled intensity of a track like "Suggestion" or "Bad Mouth" and think "Holy shit, that is a powerful and badass sound!", back then I would have hidden a yawn, nodded appreciatively and then my itchy finger woulda ejected the CD asap and played Bad Brains instead and started fucking losing my shit.
As for this EP, its great. It's a cool, sophisticated take on Emo and Hardcore, helped define a sound and a whole change in hardcore in the decade to come. That said, I won't lie and say this is now or has become an all time favorite. There are moments that make me want to pump my fist in rebellious solidarity but there are other times when they weirdly tuned guitars and the little byroads of noisy indie rock just kind of sound, to me, nice I guess, pretty cool i suppose. Exceptions being the rightfully heralded masterpiece "Waiting Room" (as great a post hardcore song as has ever existed, full of cool dynamics and something special in that chorus and that riff), "Bad Mouth" (with its slow building intensity), and "Suggestion" (which for some reason just gets under my skin and sounds gorgeous and excellent to me). Excellent debut statement from Fugazi. Highly recommended.
So this is an EP by Noise Rock group Pussy Galore. It's 7 tracks and 16 minutes of Noise Rock meets Blues Rock mayhem. The vocalist sounds like a demented troll. The guitars undoubtedly rock and they sound fucking great when they atre laying down these filthy blues licks overlayed with that crunching noisy staticy stuff.
The opening track has a surprising and cool Public Enemy "Don't Believe The Hype!" sample thrown in as well as a few other very modern (at time of recording) songs. That along with the purposely abrasive junkyard rhythms from trash cans and shit, a Captain Beefheart "Diddy-Wah-Diddy"-sized bassline, an array of old and familiar blues and blues rock guitar riffs made fresh by the brashness and absurdity of their delivery and that madman lead singer at the forefront, this all adds up to a goddamn track fro the ages!
The other tracks don't go far astray.... fair warning this is some seriously abrasive, aggressive and heavy blues garage noise rock that will either makes you feel your whole body slowly turn blue and electric, or it will make your head hurt. If the latter is your reaction, turn off immediately as it doesn't get more mellow as the EP roars along. Fuck this album is unhinged and fun and just... lovely really.
I recommend this for fans of Butthole Surfers, Flat Duo Jets, The Monks, Big Black, that gnarly nasty White Stripes debut, Gun Club The Sonics, and other noise rock and blues garage punk through the years.
-----------------------
Now for an album I remembered making fun of years ago on this very diary for its anniversary. Listened to a bit of it today to see if any more liking of it. Didn't do much and I wanted to revive this stupid and silly written review from 4.5 years ago! Here goes:
So, I put this on as 1. a sort of punishment to myself and 2. an ironic gag. - I went into this thinking it would be a fun joke just for the hell of it. I figured it may be a bad album, but if you think about it, you have to be bad to be good.
So here i am and I am legitimately listening to this album a second time! In a row! And...I enjoy it.
I'm gonna let that sink in. For myself, not all of you reading this. You don't care. Why should you.
-------
But, really, starting with the cover I knew I was about to get into the sickening depths of the lowest dregs of pop culture. I knew I was about to enter the heart of darkness...
I watch the ice melt fast on her red hot lips/She whispers "If you wanna taste my love/why don't you swallow this?
Track 1 starts (for the 3rd time in an hour in a half, mind you) and its not so bad. Dumb, sophomoric, insincere, bawdy, yes. But hey, the guitar tone is cool and somewhat unique. Not a bad start.
You see I raise a toast to all of us/Who are breaking our backs every day
If wanting the good life is such a crime/Lord, then put me away/Here's to ya
Track 2! The hit! Awesome! I can rock to this. Not too much, mind you, as I surely will start feeling empty inside. But that chorus ringing in my ear was solid, and something I was all too familiar with without ever connecting the dots to Poison. This isn't half bad!
Back to the rockin' horse/Back to where it all began/Take me back-back to the rockin' horse/And start all over again
As track 3 gets about halfway under way, there is a fleeting moment of doubt. About my choices, both on this day and in life. How did I get here? How have I come to throw away all these opportunities? And how did I get to this moment when I CHOOSE to take out 2 to 3 hours of my time to listen to the stupidest music ever conceived and write a music diary about it?
This moment passes, I get back to rockin' the fuck out to this here guitar solo! Without thinking, my hand makes the shape of a fist, it raises into the air, and it pumps. It pumps back and forth. And inside part of me dies.
So I roll her over in the middle of the night/and I rock my baby 'til the morning light/Getting hot....Good love, ....yeah.(...yeah. nice capper to that sentence...yeah.)
...Good Love, yeah. I am internally singing along to these lyrics. By this time I am numb. The first time through the album I unironically enjoyed this 4th track. The second time, if I'm being honest, I wasn't playing much attention cuz i was busy gathering up data on the album (oh how pathetic). But now on this 3rd. Straight. Time. Through. I am numb. Cold.
But if I'm being honest this track is alright.
I just wanna eat you up like a lion in a cage/Just get a little bit closer girl/And that's all I'll need to say
I notice a twinge of pain in my head. It has been there for several minutes, but now its really blossoming. I am feeling ill. Maybe cuz I've had no food or sleep. Surely this band isn't so influential as to literally dissolve brain tissue...? Or , maybe...
Well maybe I'm a bad boy/OK, so I've been around the block/But I am good at one thing/And believe me
... it ain't talk
It's come to this. I am a wreck. I am like that documentary guy (forget the name, funny sounding...SPURLOCK) who ate all that fast food and then just detachedly watched his body crumble. I am that guy. Poison is fast food. Fast food is Poison.
Too much too soon/Or just a little too late
And then this song! Phew! Track 7 (lucky number 7, ... I'll be damned!) "Fallen Angel is actually solid. It's like moron-level Tom Petty. It's like what a 13 year old aspiring Bruce Springsteen wannabe might write out in school when the teacher's not looking. But that's really not bad! I'd be impressed if a 13 year old wrote this and composed this and then played that pretty little guitar lick for it. The solo is solid, the chorus tugs on the strings of your heart. This is a solid friggin' track. So solid that I actually mentioned it's name individually you may have noticed.
Not gonna lie the first time I listened to this this morning I looked ahead on the track listing, saw the name of the next song, and thought "FUCK YEAH! 'Every Rose has Its Thorn...another hit!" sadly...
I listen to our favorite song playing on the radio/Hear the DJ say love's a game of easy come and easy go
But I wonder what does he know?
...I had no recollection of the song. I had no recollection that it was perhaps the worst song of all songs ever to ride piggy back on an american radiowave. The acoustic guitar sound is so saaad, but not sad like Nick Drake, sad as in pathetic. And the melody and the chorus and the lyrics, the whole thing makes me weep.
And as bad as it was the first time, it was 10 times more painful the 3rd time around. And on the third time around, my headache came roaring back. Sad.
You gotta be bad to be good
If you know what I'm talkin' about(I don't know what you're talking about. you suck. fuck you.)
What do these lyrics even mean? Why were the dudes who made these lyrics so bad at making lyrics? I mean I probably am slightly less talented than them as lyricists, but I don't display my minimal literary intellect for the world to laugh at.
He made the biggest scene
He made the ladies scream
He had a state fair smile
... if you know what I mean(I don't know what you mean. you suck. fuck you.)
"He had a State Fair smile"? He had a state fair smile. Maybe they meant "He had a stately and fair smile"? What could that possibly mean. Maybe they really meant...hmm... *voice inside head whispers:* I am no one. I cease existing. I dissolve into a million little particles.
And now I just wait for it to end. So I can sit blankly for a few minutes, get a smoke and some coffee and unwind. I try to think, to remember the person I was just 2 and half hours ago when I started this ill-fated project.
"You are going to be okay." I say to myself half-heartedly.
-------
Okay, so as you can see by my opening statements compared to my later ones, I had a change of heart on this album come the 3rd listen. When I initially was seemingly enjoying this album, I was just starting my second listen. That 3rd listen hit like a ton of bricks. It was like Poison in my veins (hey-oh!)
To Poison's credit, A.) I am not their intended audience, and B.) This album is not meant to be listened to back-to-back-to-back on a lazy sunday morn. It's meant for one VERY LOUD play at night, at a party, with lots of stupid people (alcohol may be the cause of said stupidity, but probably not), and then that's it. Then you put on a MOTLEY CRUE album or something to compare and contrast the styles of the 2 bands like you may compare red wines or Salvador Dali paintings
So, with that said and understood by me and you, my first impression probably is the most valid. Which Was: It's a stupid album, a fun album, a short album, and it not as bad as I may have been expecting.
But note to self: Never listen to this album or band again. Or, Hell I'll just say it - NEVER LISTEN TO THIS GENRE AGAIN. (Okay, I maybe went to far. I am sure there's just gobs and gobs to love in all those W.A.S.P. albums)
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
*Kinda Sorta Footnote: If you ever listen to this album (I don't recommend it), and you happen to have the 20th anniversary re-issue available, I DO recommend listening to the 10 minute bonus track. It's 10 minutes of promotion from the band in their own words and glorious speaking voices. They talk about how the cover really says a lot about the music, they compare each other to poets and even Van Gogh, they go on about their "philosophies" on life, and some other stuff too. I was laughing. I listened to it a second time after the painful 3rd listen to help shake me outta my mood.
The band may be winking at the audience a bit on this track, but something tells me they aren't and that they really do still see themselves as great artists. God I'm an asshole.
Go listen to that track!
******************************
-------------------------------
Okay, this was fun! Let's update that 1988 list! 25 down and boy that is one amazing and amazingly HEAVY top 5 ain't it?!
1. Daydream Nation by Sonic Youth
2. South of Heaven by Slayer
3. Spirit of Eden by Talk Talk
4. Leprosy by Death
5. From Enslavement to Obliteration by Napalm Death
6. you made me realise - EP by My Bloody Valentine
7. Sugarshit Sharp by Pussy Galore
8. How Will I Laugh Tomorrow… by Suicidal Tendencies
9. 16 Lovers Lane by The Go-Betweens
10. If I Should Fall From Grace With God by The Pogues
11. Miss America by Mary Margaret O'Hara
12. Green by R.E.M.
13. Fugazi by Fugazi
14. …And Justice For All by Metallica
15. Demo by Blood Spill
16. Slow Turning by John Hiatt
17. Slave by Infest
18. Cinema Paradiso Score/OST by Ennio Morricone
19. The Trinity Session by Cowboy Junkies
20. You Must Be Certain of the Devil by Diamanda Galas
21. Rattle & Hum by U2
22. By All Means Necessary by Boogie Down Productions
23. Down In The Groove by Bob Dylan
24. You Walk Alone by Jandek
25. Open Up and Say… Ahh! By Poison _________________ -Ryan
Okay, today lets get some metal in and maybe a non-metal album or 2 as well. One thing I was seeing was a lot of 88 albums are debut albums or demos from bands that would go on to dominate or define death and grind and other stuff for years to come. Namely, Bolt Thrower, Carcass, Immolation, Pestilence, Morbid Saint, Sadus, Autopsy, Vio-Lence, Nihilist, etc etc... Will I cover all that today or in this post? probably not. But that is what I want to explore.
Starting these early days of Death legends listens with Bolt Thrower seemed logical. I have heard their second LP, the much more well produced and less raw Realm of Chaos, as well as their iconic 2005 album Those Once Loyal. This album is their debut LP. While all their albums are on apple music and spotify, this one is left off. Perhaps the band doesn't have control over it or maybe the early roughness of these tracks embarreses them? I don't know. Much like many other greats such as Anthrax, this first album is indeed a very poorly recorded, ugly, chaotic mess. But, also like those other great examples, the roughness and chaos of the record's production makes for a pretty kick ass sound and album.
This record is sick. It sounds like the soundtrack for a crew of young soldiers marching off to some doomed battlefield. The music is a mix of some Thrash, some early Death metal and heaps of deathgrind. The UK was on fire with this new insanely fast and aggressive new form of extreme metal at the time. And while this isn't as vicious as Napalm Death at the time, its just as heavy and the fact that they can weave this grindcore sound in so nicely with some sick, thick, lumbering death metal and with some killer thrash headbanging riffs and some cool lightning fast solos, makes this an honestly really cool debut album. They should make it available somewhere other than youtube.
The production is both a kind of lowkey plus as well as a negative. At times the fact that everything bleeds together into a soupy and indistinct mess undercuts the groovy riffs and the points in the albums when I feel you're supposed to clearly hear some lone instrument soloing or coming through. But, on the flip side, when the whole band is going nuts and talking over each other so to speak, like when they go down and dirty with some grindcore passage, the fact that everything combines and bleeds together makes the sound become this ugly, lava-hot, mass of sounds - sounds like chaos and a very ill-intentioned chaos at that - and that actually kicks ass. So the poor production has its goods and bads.
Carcass follows a similar trajectory to Bolt Thrower in some ways. They came out5 of the gates in the same UK grind scene the same year, released a rough-as-fudge debut album, then got to work and refined their sound quite hastily and released a superior in many ways follow up in 1989 (same as Bolt Thrower) they then made a masterpiece in 1991 and 1993 (Bolt Thrower released very highly regarded DM albums in 1991 and 1992 and 1994 - but I admit I have not heard them). I find this somewhat interesting. One major thing that Carcass managed to do that is fucking fantastic is they released this album and their 1989 Symphonies of Sickness, which was a MASSIVE influence on every gross out medical procedure gore-fest themed band who came after, then in 1991 they created a straight forward death metal album with much less goreGRIND involved, and then they shockingly created one of the great works of Melodic Death Metal in 1993. Like these dudes just fucking went and quasi-invented goregrind and were one of the first grindcore groups and then a few years later quasi-invented melodic death metal and influencved legions of swedes with Heartwork. My hat is tipped to thee, Carcass.
Anyway, about this album in particular... if Bolt Thrower's debut was roughly recorded and muddy, well then this... this is substantially more muddy and rough sounding. By design I think. If the recording quality of Bolt Thrower's debut was like a 4, than this is a 2 (and the brilliant Napalm Death is like a 5 or 6 in comparison). The music here just rumbles, the bass just sounds like this incessant wobbly deep groan that barrages your ears the whole way through. The bass is the bedrock of the sound and then over top we have these garbled, weird, what became classic goregrind vocals rasining hell all over this thing. Then on top of the bass and vocals doing weird shit, the guitars just sound like staticy sludge hammers. The fact that underneath all this ugly production there are moments of truly TRULY kickass thrashing riff work just makes the whole experience - at times - sublime. The drums are there too, holding down the beat as best they can. Nothing amazing there that I heard.
Its funny that despite how influential this album undoubtedly was for the creation of a little niche subgenre, this is generally not a loved or revered debut. Not that this is scientific at all, but if you go to RYM and you look at the top metal albums of 1988, and scroll and keep scrolling, you won't find this album for several minutes. Finally down there at #209 metal album of 1988, you will find this Reek of Putrefaction, with a small 3.25 avg grade. Why this is I think is clear: they - Carcass - took this sound and recorded it better and perfected it within months and released Symphonies of Sickness 16 months later and THAT is given its due love within metal fandoms. This album is so ugly and the drums in particular are sooo absurdly strange sounding and indistinct and amateur as well as how everything just sounds soupy, that it was just a bridge too far. I think though that there is a lot to love here not just for the historical significance of this release as one of the earliest grindcore documents, but also there is a rotting, decaying, ugly atmosphere you will find here and some really cool riffs, that make it a pretty damn cool album. Do I love it? No. I respect it and it mostly is fascinating seeing a band like this level up so fast from album 1 to 2 to 3 to 4. Carcass were far far too great to be contained and the coming years after this debut proved it.
-----------------
From the ashes of RIGOR MORTIS, the dawn of IMMOLATION
(This is an 8 minute demo that Immolation made when they first started. Not adding it to my chart or to the database, so no picture, presentation will be terrible, but here's a tiny note)
This was awesome. These NY Death Metal giants sounded fucking awesome even on first creation. The guitar tone on this demo... oh and here is the youtube link so you can listen if you're curious and have 8 minutes to spare -
...anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, the GUITAR TONE is soo gnarly and distorted and thick yet cutting. The vocals are pitch perfect old school growling but not cartoonishly. This is a cool as hell demo and I'm happy to hear it. They obviously went on to make some true classics and much better stuff and this is more of a curiosity and a snapshot of the early days of NY death metal, still - cool stuff.
I have not heard their EPs or demos as Rigor Mortis. They never released an LP under that name. I suppose they changed it due to the relative success of the Thrash band by the same name at the time (I may get to them in this 1988 year deep dive). Anyway, moving on.
Okay, so Terrorizer went on to break up shortly after this demo was made and then they joined up again and made one of the greatest metal albums of all time in 1989, World Downfall. Terrorizer were and still are one of the best grindcore bands to have ever existed. This split demo with their buddies, Nausea, proves this.
Nausea... I don't know much about them. They are also a Cali Crust/Grind band from the same time period (obviously). They shared a member or 2 with Terrorizer... I think they had the same singer or something. They released some other albums later than this demo after Terrorizer had already released their classic and had broken up. Haven't heard any of their stuff outside of the second half of this demo. But they sound great here.
The first 17 minutes of this split is Terrorizer and... its absolutely unbridled hateful, politically enraged gloriousness! Terrorizer sound like they have been sent in as the vanguard of a full-frontal assault upon the world and they just absolutely kill. The Guitars are these heavy biting beautiful terrors, the singer and bassist and drummer are all just burning away at full speed, crushing skulls with their attack. The drums have a weird sound with the toms of something, they sound strangely high pitched and they stick out - at first in a weird and off putting way, but as I got used to it I liked it a lot and that drum sound gives these Terrorizer tracks a unique character I suppose. Anyway, while I won't say this is better than their 1989 masterpiece, this is at least in the same range of excellence and should be heard by those who love World Downfall or other grind acts and albums of that 1987-1989 era.
Nausea's half is also fantastic. The band sounds more Crust Punk, not as heavy and maybe not quite as death metal-informed, but just as raging and angry. The absoilutely filthy recording quality on the second half of this split when Nausea takes over makes this just a fully embodied terror attack upon your ears and your rosy conceptions of society. Filthy, crusty, rank, blissful hatred through and through.
Honestly this entire fucking thing is a joy and one of the coolest discoveries so far. Is this the best Grind album of the year? After 1 and a half listens, it is already challenging Napalm Death's 1988 classic which I didn't expect. Whereas Napalm Death has that ridiculous speed and that vocal personality and cartoonishness to at times drag it down and away from the pure message and statement, this demo doesn't have any aspect to distract from the assault and the message. Maybe that makes it better? Napalm Death's album is more of a revolutionarily heavy and fast experience. This demo really is clearly some EXTREMELY intense crust/hardcore punk taken to its next form. Napalm Death with their album had so thoroughly separated themselves from even the craziest of Punk's influence that I never thought "Okay, yeah, this is hardcore punk but, like, really fast and stuff". So I guess I give the edge to napalm Death as of now. But this is still a must listen for fans of this style and this family of extreme anarchic musical styles.
-----------------------
[size=18]And now something from Royalty, Bathory at their best arguably!
There is quite possibly no cooler intro to any metal album than those first few minutes that kick this album off. Eerie, epic, atmospheric, kind of sad and somber, and it just puts you into this cool new world. What follows is Black metal and Thrash at its peak. The vocals are so classic and imitated it makes me think perhaps this is the most purely influential album of this year within metal anyway. Perhaps there were other albums that were just as influential within a much narrower niche, such as Reek of Putrefaction or ... nevermind, Leprosy... Leprosy probably is the most influential. Still, this album's sound is so cool and imitated it certainly is right up there with Leprosy at the very least. (also it should be noted with Helloween releasing a landmark album as well as Iron Maiden, 2 artists that I generally don't give as much respect to as I a should, this may be influencing what albums I am considering for this little debate/though thingie.)
As for Bathory... I have heard their incredible debut album, their 1987 classic Under The Sign of The Black Mark and Hammerheart - as well as previously having heard this 1988 album as well. The fact that each of these are undoubtedly classics and influential is a testament to how massive Bathory's shadow is within the whole world of Heavy Metal in general. Legends they are.
This album on this recent revisit blew me away. It manages to be both brutally heavy, sonically diverse, epic and alluring, musically competent and technical, as well as fun - those moments when they pull off some perfectly written Thrash riff are as smile-inducing as anything else I've heard from the year. This is just a super well-rounded album. It can be loved on many levels. While I think I prefer Hammerheart a bit more as of now, that doesn't really mean much because they went a completely different direction with that album almost completely abandoning the razor-sharp black metal of Blood Fire Death for essentially a full album of what they did at the beginning of Blood Fire Death.
The star of the show here is the vocalist (and guitarist and much of the other stuff in this "band") Quorthon. His vocals are superbly tortured and evil and intense the whole way through, for a simple example, listen to his agonized screams on "Dies Irae". They are fantastic and hard to listen to.
The thing about this album is its 2 absolutely epic "Viking Metal" classics as pieces of bread with the majority of the sandwich, the meat and cheese, being some of the most punishing blackened thrash of the era or all time. Its an interesting way to organize the album. I like it, but I suppose if someone who wasn't a fan of razor sharp, brutal in-the-red thrash/black metal riffs may hear that first song and then when stuff like "The Golden Walls of Heaven" come in, they nope out really quick. Well, if you don't like the brutal parts, I can understand that. Personally I consider as well that the bookends are the highest of highlights, but the stuff in between to be quite excellent as well.
Not much else to say. This is classic and great. Highly recommended to folks reading this.
------------------------
And, finally, something less metal to end off this big post, I revisited an old favorite to see how it holds up after several years mostly away:
What can be said about this utterly revered and worshipped debut Pixies album? Well, I don't have much to say or much to add that you probably haven't heard before. This album is so incisive and ALIVE. So creative, humane and yet animalistic somehow. The harmonies and the chemistry betwixt Black Francis and Kim Deal is out of this world, so weird sounding and yet so lovely. The only thing I can think of that somewhat reminds me of the dynamic between those 2 vocals and their harmonies are those between Exene and John Doe in those great X albums. Similar feeling of this shouldn't work but for some reason I'm feeling things right now. Case in point "Break My Body". The vocals on that track absolutely slay me and that song a=in general is maybe my favorite on this album due in no small part to the beautiful way "Break my Body Hold my Bones!" is sung.
This album is so raw and relatively speaking (relative to their follow up Doolittle) so minimalistic. The guitar tone is this whining, high pitched, crackling, live wire of a thing. The Post-hardcore or punk elements at the heart of the sound are fabulous, but the fact they took this sound or this closest thing to a root genre and expanded and went new places with it to such a degree that I can't comfortably say its a post hardcore album or punk album at all is impressive. Black Francis is a mad man here and completely unpredictable and yet has an amazing ear for a pop hook. His vocals and persona reminds me a lot of the great vocalist Jeffrey Lee Pierce from The Gun Club. They each have that same erratic, electric, unpredictable, utterly punk rock badassness.
Song highlights outside of what I already stated is possibly my fave song here "Break My Body", include the opener "Bone Machine", "Gigantic", of course the ever loved "Where Is My Mind?", the utterly lovable exuberant wackiness "Tony's Theme", the brilliance and guitar playing and vocals and everything really of "Vamos" never fails to blow me away, and that guitar riff on the closing track "Brick Is Red" along with that damn vocal harmony between Deal and Francis... beautiful.
There are some moments on the album that don't work so well for me at times. Depending on my mood, "River Euphrates" can either be kind of cool atmospheric and manic or it can be annoying as shit. Yesterday when I listened it was annoying, today as I listen again while writing this note, I kind of love it. The female vocals though do annoy me on this one a little even today. "Cactus" ain't much, its fine I guess. "Oh My Golly!" mostly doesn't work for me personally, like I can hear that this track adds to the completely unhinged energy vibe of this album that distinguishes it from Doolittle even and certainly any other rock of the time, but I still don't like it - outside of the studio banter bit at the end, which has always been memorable and endearing to me. "I'm Amazed" is kind of throw away to me as well. And... that's about it when it comes to cons. Nothing bad here, but some stuff that limits it a little from being a certified classic and near perfect album for me or in the same tier as certainly Daydream Nation or even Doolittle.
This is good album.
-----------------------------
Okay, we covered 6 instead of 5 here and we still have much much much much to explore metal-wise and otherwise-wise. But I did 6 because one of those releases I mentioned was 8 minutes and 2 tracks (The Immolation Demo) and won't be going on my chart. I wanted to get my CHART to 30, while the below updated list will include 31 entries.
I'll be back at some point to talk more stuff. Sorry to all you non-metal fans. There wasn't much of interest for you in this one. Soon I'll "Sell out" and do Public Enemy, The Smiths, Joy Division, Iron Maiden and Nick Cave all in the same post maybe and raise the read number from like 4 to something crazy like 10! 😄 (In truth I am trying to have at least 1 super familiar old favorite of mine and one more well known album in any given 1988 listening dump. For this one its Surfer Rosa, for the next it may be Tender Prey and Public Enemy's masterpiece, we shall see.)
Let us see the updated list shall we!!!?:
1. Daydream Nation by Sonic Youth
2. South of Heaven by Slayer
3. Spirit of Eden by Talk Talk
4. Leprosy by Death
5. From Enslavement to Obliteration by Napalm Death
6. you made me realise - EP by My Bloody Valentine
7. Split Demo Tape by Terrorizer/Nausea
8. Sugarshit Sharp by Pussy Galore
9. 16 Lovers Lane by The Go-Betweens
10. If I Should Fall From Grace With God by The Pogues
11. Surfer Rosa by The Pixies
12. How Will I Laugh Tomorrow… by Suicidal Tendencies
13. Blood Fire Death by Bathory
14. Miss America by Mary Margaret O'Hara
15. Green by R.E.M.
16. …And Justice For All by Metallica
17. Fugazi by Fugazi
18. Slow Turning by John Hiatt
19. In Battle There Is No Law! By Bolt Thrower
20. Demo by Blood Spill
21. Slave by Infest
22. Cinema Paradiso Score/OST by Ennio Morricone
23. Reek of Putrefaction by Carcass
24. The Trinity Session by Cowboy Junkies
25. You Must Be Certain of the Devil by Diamanda Galas
26. Rattle & Hum by U2
27. By All Means Necessary by Boogie Down Productions
1988 Demo by Immolation
28. Down In The Groove by Bob Dylan
29. You Walk Alone by Jandek
30. Open Up and Say… Ahh! By Poison _________________ -Ryan
Risking spoiling what may be around the corner, here is the list of albums I'm circling like a bird of prey or like a vulture around a corpse:
1933 Your House Is Mine - Missing Foundation
4 of a Kind - D.R.I.
69 - A.R. Kane
A Bell Is A Cup Until It Is Struck - Wire
A Fierce Pancake - Stump
A Land Before Time OST
A Little Man and A House - Cardiacs
A Vision Shared - Woody Guthrie & Leadbelly
A Vision Shared - Woody Guthrie & Leadbelly
Africa - Pharoah Sanders and Others
Age of Consent - Virgin Steele
Ainsi soit je… - Mylene Farmer
Ali Farke Toure - Ali Farke Toure
Allegory and Self - Psychick TV
Ammnesia - Mr. Fingers
Amnesia - Richard Thompson
Ancient Dreams - Candlemass
Armia - Armia
Battalions of Fear - Blind Guardian
Beelzebubba - Dead Milkmen
Beyond EP - Atheist
Big Time - Tom Waits
Birth, School, Work, Death - The Godfathers
Birthdeath EP - Skullflower
Blue Bell Knoll - Cocteau Twins
Boogadaboo.. - Screeching Weasel
Born To Expire - Leeway
Brain Damage - Vendetta
Brian Wilson - Brian Wilson
Budd - Rapeman
Bug - Dinosaur Jr.
Cacophony - Rudimentary Peni
California - American Music Club
Charmed Life - Half Japanese
Cold Lake - Celtic Frost
Complicated Mind - Doom
Copperhead Road - Steve Earle
Cosmic Psychos - Cosmic Psychos
Critical Beatdown - Ultramagnetic MCs
Critical Madness - Autopsy
Crossroads - Eric Clapton
Danzig - Danzig
Dark Adapted Eye - Danielle Dax
December - For Against
Diamonds & Dirt - Rodney Crowell
Dimension Hatross - Voivod
Disgraceland - Elvis Hitler
Dogma EP - Tall Dwarves
Don't Be Afraid of the Dark - Robert Cray Band
Double Bummer - Bongwater
Dream of Life - Patti Smith
Dreamtime Return - Steve Roach
Drive - Bela Fleck
Earth Covers Earth - Current 93
Emma's House EP - The Field Mice
Endless War - Realm
Eponymous - REM
Fear of God EP - Fear of God (+ other 88 Eps)
Feed Me With Your Kiss - My Bloody Valentine
Fisherman's Blues - The Waterboys
Five Fingers… - The Stretchheads
Follow the Leader - Rakim
Forbidden Evil - Forbidden
From Langley Park to memphis - Prefab Sprout
Front By Front - Front 242
God In Three Persons - The Residents
Godflesh EP - Godflesh
Goin' Off - Biz Markie
Gorilla Biscuits EP - Gorilla Biscuits
Great Adventures of Slick Rick - Slick Rick
Green Thoughts - The Smithereens
Hairway to Steven - Butthole Surfers
Hallowed Ground - Skin Yard
Hanta koipian valissa - Leevi and the Leavings
Happy Families - Paul Roland and the….
Hat - The Nits
Hate In Me EP - Moss Icon
Heading for Internal Darkness - Hellbastard
Hectic EP - Operation Ivy
Hee-Haw - The Birthday Party
He's The DJ, I'm The Rapper - Fresh Prince
Hey Judester - The Didjits
History of a Time to Come - Sabbat
Holy Terror - Mind Wars
House Tornado - Throwing Muses
Human Sacrifice - Vengeance
Hysteria - Amnesia
Illusions - Sadus
I'm Your Man - Leonard Cohen
In Control Volume 1 - Marley Marl
In The Graveyard - Dead Moon
In The Spanish Cave - Thin White Rope
Introspective - Pet Shop Boys
Invisible Lantern - Screaming Trees
Irene - Killing Time
Irish Heartbeat - Van Morrison and the Chieftains
Iron Path - Last Exit
Isn't Anything - My Bloody Valentine
Jamboree - Beat Happening
Jettison - Naked Raygun
Keeper of the Seven Keys II - Helloween
Kingdom Come - Kingdom Come
Kings Of Metal - Manowar
Kino album
Kylie - Kylie Minogue
L.A. Guns - L.A. Guns
Lead Me On - Amy Grant
Let It Be - Laibach
Let's Play Domination - World Domination Enterprises
Life Time - Rollins Band
Life's Too Good - The Sugarcubes
Lincoln - They Might Be Giants
Long Live the Kane - Big Daddy Kane
Lovely - The Primitives
Lovesexy - Prince
Lucinda Williams - Lucinda Williams
Malcolm X Park - Unrest
Malleus Maleficarum - Pestilence
Mao Morta - Mao Morta
Martha Splatterhead's Maddest Stories Ever Told - The Accused
Master Control - Liege Lord
Master Project Genesis - Target
Melissa Etheridge - Melissa Etheridge
Mind Wars - Holy Terror
Money For Nothing - Dire Straits
Mournful Cries - Saint Vitus
Naked - Talking Heads
Negotiations and Love Songs - Paul Simon
Neurodeliri - Bulldozer
New York Crew EP - Judge
Newbuild - 808 State
No Place for Disgrace - Flotsam and Jetsam
Nothing's Shocking - Jane's Addiction
Old Lady Drivers - O.L.D.
On The Way - Jandek
One Fair Summer Evening - Nanci Griffith
Only Life - The Feelies
Operation Mindcrime - Queensryche
Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart - Camper van Beethovan
Out of the Abyss - Manilla Road
Perpetual Burn - Jason Becker
Picture One - Asylum Party
Plight and Prmonition - David Sylvian and…
Plux Quba - Nuno Canavarro
Pontiac - Lyle Lovett
Port Royal - Running Wild
Power Metal - Pantera
Powertrip - Ludichrist
Premature Autopsy - Nihilist
Prison Bound - Social Distortion
Punishment for Decadance - Coroner
Quiet Music - Steve Roach
Rank - The Smiths
Rigor Mortis - Rigor Mortis
Ritually Abused - Num Skull
Rock N Roll Conformity - Deviated Instinct
Rotund for Success - Severed Heads
Ruins III - Ruins
See The Light - Jeff Healey Band
Serpent Temptation - Incubus
Seventh Day of Doom - Tormentor
Seventh Son of A Seventh Son - Iron Maiden
Sex Bomb Baby - Flipper
Sick, Disgust, Eternal EP - Grave
Skull Fracturing Nightmare EP - Demolition Hammer
Small Parts Isolated and Destroyed - NoMeansNo
So far So Good So What - Megadeth
So Good It Hurts - Mekons
Soliloquoy for Lilith - Nurse With Wound
Sour Mash - Beasts of Bourbon
Souvinir Cassette - After Dinner
Space Wrangler - Widespread Panic
Spiritflesh - Nocturnal Emissions
Spokojnie - Kult
Starfish - The Church
State of Euphoria - Anthrax
Straight Outta Compton - N.W.A
Streets of This Town - Steve Forbert
Strictly Business - EPMD
Stronger Than Pride - Sade
Sub Pop 200 - Various Artists
Substance - Joy Division
Suffer - Bad Religion
Suffering Hour - Anacrusis
Superfuzz Big Muff - Mudhoney
Survive - Nuclear Assault
Talk Is Cheap - Keith Richards
Tender Prey - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Terra Firma - Test Dept
Thaw - Foetus Interuptus
The Beatnigs - The Beatnigs
The Day Everything Became Nothing EP - NoMeansNo
The Frogs - The Frogs
The Greatest Hits Collection - Bananarama
The House of Love - The House of Love
The Innocents - Erasure
The Land of Rape and Honey - Ministry
The Lilac Time - The Lilac Time
The Love Songs - Giant Sand
The Morning After - Tankard
The Music of Erich Zann - Mekong Delta
The New Order - Testament
The Past Masters 1 and 2 - The Beatles
The Peel Session - Bolt Thrower
The Peel Sessions - Nico
The Peel Sessions - The Cure
The Peel Sessions - The Smiths
The Serpent's Egg - Dead Can Dance
The Stars We Are - Marc Almond
The Traveling Wilburys Vol 1 - The Traveling Wilburys
The Walking - Jane Siberry
The White Arcades - Harold Budd
Them - King Diamond
There She Goes EP - The La's
ThunderSteel - Riot
Timbral Planes - Jeff Greinke
Today - Galaxie 500
Tommy - The Wedding Present
Tracy Chapman - Tracy Chapman
Trait EP - Pailhead
Transcendence - Crimson Glory
Trial - Verbal Assault
True Till Death - Chain of Strength
Truth and Soul - Fishbone
Two Nuns and A Pack Mule - Rapeman
Ultramega OK - Soundgarden
Unhindered By Talent - Sore Throat
Vicisect VI - Skinny Puppy
Violent Restitution - Razor
Viva Hate - Morrissey
Vivid - Living Colour
Voodoo Ray - A Guy Called Gerald
War Crimes: Inhuman Beings - Doom
Watermark - Enya
We're Not In This Alone - Youth of Today
Workers Playtime - Billy Bragg
Wrede/The Cruel Peace - Gore
You're Only Young Once EP - Side by Side
It's 238 left standing after some reviews and comments. Chart is up to 30 with comments. Here it is if you are interested in 1988 so far - Top 30 Music Albums of 1988 by Mercury
It's in alphebetical order by album. At least one album was very very hard to spell and I just couldn't so its shortened. If you are a mad person and read over that list and notice some really great albums, like top 10 of the year, that I have left off consideration, please add. It can be a compilation or a archival or live or EP, or Demo as you have seen. Don't care. Just hook me up. _________________ -Ryan
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
Mercury
Repo
