Metal Nerdism Vol. 7: Top-10 metal albums that are not albums.

 

... or compilations of recordings that are not exactly an "album" and definitely they are not a "best of" album. In a few cases they are demo recordings that the bands would love to have released as an album when they were recording them (no matter if they don't really believe it now) or compilation releases of specific recordings that mostly didn't make it to any official album or just represent each artist at the moment.

Some of those albums presented herein are considered as "compilations" (and that's correct) while others are considered as "albums" (might not be exactly correct) and one of them was an "album" sometime in the past but not now... Confusing? Might be. But it is also funny.

We don't include:

- "Best of", "Greatest Hits", "The Story So Far" etc. collections - compilations, even if they have an unreleased track or two. For example, Black Sabbath's We Sold Our Souls for Rock 'n' Roll and Iron Maiden's Best of the Beast.

- Re-recorded full albums. For example, Manowar's Battle Hymns MMXI and Twisted Sister's Still Hungry.

- Regular live albums recorded during touring, and live album compilations. For example Judas Priest's Priest... Live! and Saxon's The Eagle Has Landed.

- Unplugged, acoustic and orchestral albums or compilations. For example Blind Guardian's The Forgotten Tales.

- Albums including only cover songs from other artists. For example, Ozzy Osbourne's Under Cover and Six Feet Under's Graveyard Classics.

- Tape/Cassette-albums that were also released on CD and/or vinyl format in later years. For example Apollo Ra's Ra Pariah and Axis' No Man's Land. [There is going to be a feature for similar cases in the future]

In every case, there are people who consider that the specific releases of Warlord or Sorcerer listed below, as their best "albums". In a few of those cases, I am among those people. 

written by Andreas Andreou

1. VENOM - The Singles 80-86

If someone will ask me to offer three albums of what Venom were and what made them what they are, I would definitely offer Welcome to Hell, Black Metal and The Singles 80-86. A few of the very best songs of Newcastle's blasphemy appeared in singles only and you have them all here including "Warhead", "Seven Gates of Hell" and "Manitou".

Truth to be told, Venom is probably the metal band with the most compilations ever; we even can write an article like "Top-10 Venom Compilations" and there would be even more! They had already released the double record From Hell to the Unknown... in 1985 including the debut album on disc 1 and a collection of other tracks on disc 2, plus the famous ... Assault releases but the live releases and compilations that followed were so many! I still love a few of them and give them a spin over the years, mostly...

Check also: VENOM - In Memorium
Probably my favourite compilation album ever, including demo recordings, a few "best of" songs, single tracks, alternative versions and unreleased tracks that were first introduced to this release in 1991. The last (new, then) tracks with Tony Dolan on vocals ("If You Wanna War", "Surgery") are massive and never made it to a later album.


2. WARLORD - And the Cannons of Destruction Have Begun...

What a rare case of an album! The '80s recordings of Warlord were always confusing people, starting with Deliver Us. The debut mini LP that had the same running time with Saxon's debut album and more than Bathory's debut, still though, it was always advertised and considered as a mini-LP back then but nowadays most people consider it an EP. [Read more about Albums Vs Mini Albums Vs EPs].

And the Cannons of Destruction Have Begun... is a very special case that was originally considered as a "live" album even if the band didn't perform any live shows in the '80s. The album included an intro, four songs from the debut mini LP and four new songs with two of them released as a single just a few months before ("Lost and Lonely Days", "Aliens").

In 2011, Crystal Logic presented the first interview of Bill Tsamis' return (even if he didn't really know it at that time) followed by the reissue of the Warlord and Lordian Guard catalogue, the new album The Holy Empire and live shows. In that interview, Bill Tsamis explains: "And the Cannons of Destruction was recorded in the studio and then presented as a live Warlord show (a showcase). Unfortunately, a couple of the cameras weren't working. We had the UCLA film school doing the filming as part of a school project. The vocals on the video were lip synced - there was no way Rick Cunningham could have pulled off that vocal performance live."


3. SORCERER - Sorcerer

The band was formed in Sweden in 1988 and recorded the demo tapes Sorcerer (1989), The Inquisition (1992) and then disbanded when bassist Johnny Hagel left to join Tiamat. It took three years until the moment when John Perez of Solitude Aeturnus formed BrainTicket Records and the first release of his label was a CD including nearly all of the demo recordings of Sorcerer. Those demo recordings remain until today as one of the greatest achievements underground epic doom metal ever offered, and those years  it was the closest thing to Candlemass' debut album.

Sorcerer's fame in the underground metal scene was highly respected thanks to that CD "album" (that's been re-released a couple of times) and during the '90s and '00s you could see their name mentioned every time someone would speak about the greatest bands of epic doom metal. The Swedish band was reformed a few years later with a different line-up, joined Metal Blade Records and kept releasing albums. The songs from the Sorcerer release were never re-recorded so far and never appeared in any of the Sorcerer albums.


4. REVEREND BIZARRE - Death Is Glory... Now

The album compilation to end all compilations is a collection of all the split, singles, EP recordings of the '00s masters of doom besides their three official albums and the two "EP-albums" (Harbinger of Metal, Return to the Rectory). Taking its place next to the albums, Death Is Glory... Now is a glorious release that a certain member of the band considers as Reverend's greatest release. A must-have release for all fans of doom metal, at least equally with many of the genre's greatest albums. The Finnish doom-an'-gloom mongers along with a few others, served as the gatekeepers of (true) doom metal in a period where the rites of Black Sabbath were claimed by the stoner-desert-sludge heavy music that ruled the media and festivals. In the end, Reverend Bizarre's life and death is a huge part of doom metal's soul.


5. SLAUTER XSTROYES - Free the Beast

Released for the first time in 1998 and widely considered as Slauter Xstroyes' second "album", this is actually a release including the recordings of the second Xstroyes' album that was supposed to be released in 1987, but the sessions were left incomplete. The Free the Beast release includes six tracks of that supposed second album and six more tracks recorded during 1981-1984. Chicago's underground metal legend was a unique band with a sick character and technical over-the-top songwriting and performance ahead of its time. When Free the Beast saw the light of day after a decade hidden in the catacombs, everything was changed. Still though and after all these years, the name of Slauter Xstroyes is always mentioned in conversations that will include bands from the '80s like WatchTower up to the bands of today, like Sacral Rage.

Check also: ENERGY VAMPIRES - Energy Vampires


6. JACOBS DREAM - Jacobs Dream

Nowadays known as Demo '96 or Demo, Jacobs Dream first release in 1996 was spread in the world of underground metal as a self-financed private album. There were already a few different pressings in 1996 since its impact was huge in the underground metal scene, and the one with the cover pictured here had also "Jacobs Dream Records" written in the back, bought from the author of this blog directly from the band those days. Four years later, Jacobs Dream joined Metal Blade Records releasing a self-titled album (the band's second release) and that was presented as the "first" album, so the previous release was "downgraded" to a demo and remained like this since then, even if we knew it in the late '90s, as an "album".

The 2000 Metal Blade release (the debut album as it is now considered) had only one song from the debut release but both of them stand among the best US power metal releases of their time and even more.

Check also: THYNN ICE - Thynn Ice


7. VIRGIN STEELE - The Book of Burning

Despite their iconic '80s albums like Guardians of the Flame (1983) and Noble Savage (1985), after the release of the melodic metal album Life Among the Ruins in 1993, started a period where Virgin Steele became one of the epic heavy metal rulers. After the two parts of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Invictus and the two acts of The House of Atreus, David DeFeis released The Book of Burning in 2002. Until then, he had already re-released Noble Savage and Age of Consent including new recorded songs enough for another album and few of them were better than the songs of the old albums. That's how good he was during the '90s but what about The Book of Burning? Well, it's considered as an album by many people but it is not really an "album". It includes a few new recordings of classic songs from the first two Virgin Steele albums when Jack Starr was the axeman but most important, you can find here the compositions DeFeis and Starr wrote together during a session in 1997  that didn't lead anywhere. Songs like "Rain of Fire", "Hellfire Woman" and "The Chosen Ones", plus a few more, everything re-arranged in order to make a proper sequence that can be presented as a "new album".


8. STEEL ASSASSIN - From the Vaults

While the first official album of Steel Assassin was released in 2007 under the title War of the Eight Saints, it was the From the Vaults compilation album that brought that name back in the underground metal fans' attention in 1997. The "Executioner" song was known from its appearance in the Metal Massacre VI compilation of Metal Blade Records released in 1985 but the name of Steel Assassin remained to obscurity. Rising from the vaults, this compilation album of Steel Assassin is the true spirit of the underground US epic power metal scene. Recorded in the first half of the '80s, that line-up also includes the steel lungs of Doni Escolas and it can only be matched by bands like Tyrant and Omen those years.

Check also: AXEHAMMER - Lord of the Realm


9. RAGE - Lingua Mortis

or Lingua Mortis - Rage and the Symphonic Orchestra Prague, since in 2013 there was also an album using the "band-performers" name Lingua Mortis Orchestra. The difference is that the 2013 release was produced and mostly written and arranged by guitarist Victor Smolski, consisting of new material, while the 1996 release presented here, consists of existing Rage compositions re-arranged with orchestra. It was a matter of time someone doing a metal album with orchestra and Rage managed to be written in the books of history as the first metal band that did it, in 1996. Lingua Mortis is mostly considered as an album and it definitely gave a breath of fresh air for a while, but talking for a release that actually has a "re-arrangement" of previously released songs, it might be something different.


10. MERCYFUL FATE - Return of the Vampire

Originally released in 1992, one year before the release of Mercyful Fate's reunion album In the Shadows, Return of the Vampire is an official release of early '80s demo material that has been bootlegged so much over the years. A few songs were lately re-worked and appeared in the albums, others less ("Curse of the Pharaohs"), others more ("Death Kiss" that became "A Dangerous Meeting), others remained to obscurity ("Burning the Cross"). A few of the sessions were from Michael Denner's band named Danger Zone, where King Diamond and Hank Shermann were helping and led Denner joining Mercyful Fate, along with bassist Timi Hansen and drummer "Old" Nick Smith who was later replaced by Kim Ruzz. The "Return of the Vampire" track was also re-worked and appeared in the 1993 reunion album with Lars Ulrich of Metallica performing drum duties.

Check also: SILVER MOUNTAIN - Before the Storm


What's your favourite "album" that's not really an "album"?

Doom over the world... from bands that are not doom metal!

While I have in mind to work on a "best of" Doom Metal article, it seems that a proper work will take lot of time, and the additional contribution of musicians involved in the greatest albums of the genre, is more than needed. So, while this article is in the labyrinth of my mind (along with other ideas) and will reach the exit sometime in the future, let's pick 10 songs that have a strong doom metal vibe (some of them are actually doom metal) from bands... that have nothing to do with Doom Metal!

We will probably continue this type of articles with more genres, but for now, let's just spread doom over the world.

VENOM - Warhead

Originally released as a single in 1984, few months before the album "At War with Satan", "Warhead" is a heavy possessed anthem that stands among those Venom tracks released as singles only, and remain favourite fan songs. We are already at a period where the New Wave of British Heavy Metal started to fade, but its mark upon metal music never faded. Venom started as part of the NWoBHM movement but during the early '80s, they were something different. Sinister, vicious and everything society hated. One of the most important and influential bands of metal music. Thrash metal, black metal and all things extreme metal, owe a small debt to Cronos, Mantas and Abaddon.

During the NWoBHM we had bands like Witchfinder General,  that were highly influenced by Black Sabbath and offered doom metal in its early forms, but Venom was a unique beast and in 1984 tried different things. Among them, "Warhead", stands as one of their very best songs.  Hear the thunder roar, engraved on flesh and bone.

SCORPIONS - Animal Magnetism

Here we have a true doom metal song. Weird isn't it? This is Scorpions, the greatest German hard rock / heavy metal band, that has sold millions of albums, and yet, back in 1980 (!) they recorded a doom metal song. Following "The Zoo", "Animal Magnetism" is the last track of the same titled album that was released between "Lovedrive" (1979) and "Blackout" (1982), two of the most important and well-known albums of the band. Despite the fact that "Animal Magnetism" was the first Scorpions album that reached platinum status in the USA, somehow remain underrated. Scorpions' guitarist and composer, Rudolf Schenker, has said to Malcolm Dome and Classic Rock that "it's a really powerful album" and ranked it as Number 4 among his 10 favourite Scorpions albums. I don't know if we can take Rudolf seriously since among those 10 albums there is none before "Lovedrive" but we all know the "weird" look of artists upon their legacy and art.

I remember when US power metallers Sanctuary played live in Athens, Greece, in September of 2011, and among the classics of "Refuge Denied" and 'Into the Mirror Black", they also performed a cover of "Animal Magnetism", and most of the attendants didn't recognize that song. If you are not familiar with that doom metal gem, have a listen!

MICHAEL SCHENKER GROUP - Lost Horizons

Micheal Schenker's debut album ("The Michael Schenker Group") was also released in 1980. Michael Schenker left UFO and briefly joined Scorpions during "Lovedrive", just to leave after a while and start his own band. "Lost Horizons" is taken from his debut album and his playing has all those elements that influenced a generation of metal guitarists, including many ones from Sweden... Funny how, Memento Mori have covered both "Lost Horizons"  and "Animal Magnetism".

DANZIG - Pain in the World

Off Danzig's second album, "Danzig II - Lucifuge", the closing track is about a heart full of hell and sin. The first 4 Danzig albums include songs that balance between dark rock, slow, groovy heavy metal, blues and lot of experimental sounds. Let's say that Danzig play heavy dark rock and we will be fine! But "Pain in the World" is doomed.  

KING DIAMOND - Digging Graves 

Once a King, always a King. Right? Or not? Well, King Diamond's return over the last years is filled with praise because of his great live shows. There are even people that believe he is in his best shape, ever. It's been a "while" since his last studio album ("Give Me Your Soul... Please", 2007) but just few hours ago, he performed at Hellfest in France a new song! Hopefully, the new album will hit the shelves of the record stores in the next months.

King Diamond's legacy is one of the most important and greatest in metal history, incuding of course, both King Diamond band and Mercyful Fate. Just have a look at all those great musicians that played in these bands, next to King Diamond. Few of them, have also a doom metal history. "Digging Graves" is taken from "The Graveyard" (1996), one of King Diamond's modern classics, and dwells in insanity and doomed feelings.

YNGWIE J. MALMSTEEN - Dark Ages 

While Candlemass go neoclassical at "Into the Unfathomed Tower" (from "Tales of Creation", 1989), when they released their monumental debut album, Yngwie Malmsteen released his third solo album ("Trilogy") and "Dark Ages" is a great neoclassical doomed piece, that could be more epic (?) if it was longer. To be or not to be, Maestro is fast, but when he goes slower, he still rules, and there is always a great epic feeling in Malmsteen's slower songs.

ZOOL - Cross of Greed 

When Henrik Flyman (guitars) and Martin Häggström (vocals) disbanded Moahni Moahna in 1997, they formed another unique band under the name Zool, but besides the same-titled album in 2002, they were lost into oblivion. Flyman continued with Evil Masquerade and among others, he was also involved with Epic Irae / Quicksand Dream. While Moahni Moahna still remains a personal favourite and underrated act, Zool in "Cross of Greed" pay a tribute to Dio-era Black Sabbath. And that's just great.

SAVIOUR MACHINE - The Beast 

I just love Saviour Machine. Eric Clayton is one of the most charismatic and emotional performers out there. "The Beast" is taken from "Legend I" (1997) and the Apocalypse is a great concept for Saviour Machine. The story is not completed (and I don't know if it will ever be) but what Saviour Machine tried to do, still remains majestic and unique. And that concept can offer many doomed moments... Behold the nail, the sentence of death, and Jesus wept, it is manifest.

TWISTED SISTER - Destroyer

When Dee Snider and Co. put you under the blade, you will be destroyed. Funny thing is that someone could say that "Destroyer" is inspired by the "God of Thunder" track of Kiss, that's included in their album... "Destroyer"(1976)! Originally released in 1982, decades later, "Destroyer" still remains a killer, ultra heavy anthem and a fan favourite live track. When Twisted Sister were performing in various festivals around Europe, once "Destroyer" was hitting the stage and doomsters haven't heard of them, they were turning their heads to watch the stage, wondering "how the fuck did I miss this"?

MANOWAR - Dark Avenger

There is no need to include epic heavy metal bands here, since many of them have songs with a strong doom metal vibe. But we cannot leave aside Manowar since from their debut album, "Battle Hymns" (1982), they offered to the world an epic doom metal masterpiece entitled, "Dark Avenger". "These bones may be broken but the spirit can't die". No need to mention something else.