The Sword

I'll admit to not being really knowledgeable about modern music. If it came out much after 2000 then I don't really have a clue. It could be because I have a hard time finding stuff made after that that I like.. to much Metal is just Death Growl nonsense.. or a bunch of angry Scandinavians screaming about Satan. I mean I've had a few exceptions that I've come across.. I really like the Faroese group TYR.. but its not a really common occurance..

I happened to be in one of the only local music stores remaining.. Athens Georgia has I believe three.. but I only really ever go into two of them.. Wuxtry, and School Kids.. I went in Wuxtry first but they seemed to be having some plumbing problems or something so I didn't stick around. But when I went into school kids, I came across a group called " The Sword ".. so I wound up buying two of their albums based on the cover art.. I've been quite pleased with them so far..

I think I like their first album better than the second one. And so I'm now trying to scour Youtube hoping to find some other groups similar to them. But without a whole lot of luck in that regard..

Camels, A Premium Blend.

So Since we are in the midst of a bit Kick here with Metal Precursors.. Thought I'd post a link from a Band called Dust.

They have Cover art on one of their albums from Frazzetta, which was used on Conan of Cimmeria the second volume in the old lancer/Ace series.. Its The Frost Giants.. Their second album has no Conan connection.. but the sleeve which you could buy both Albums in.. oh it does.. and not a pleasant one either..

It's got the aforementioned artwork from Frank.. but standing off.. almost as if Conan is protecting it.. there stands the disdainful dromedary.. haunting the brave Cimmerian.

The Band also had another odd connection, it's Drummer was one Mark Bell.. who went on to become Marky Ramone a few years later.

From Hyborean Apocrypha

Like.. No one Buys CD's Anymore.. man..

This was what I heard for what seems like the millionth time today when I went into another Big Box store looking for something well.. not crap.

I've gotten tired of it, MP3's are all well and good, I've got an MP3 Player.. but they aren't tangible. You don't get to play them on your hi-fi. Granted CD's aren't as good as vinyl, but I don't pay exorbitant sums for 30-40 year old albums.. if I find an LP at goodwill or a charity shop that is in good shape I'll buy it. But other wise I stick to CD's..

Seems that, back when CD stores were everywhere was still when the record companies thought 18.99 - 29.99 was a good price range for an Album.. so I never was able to buy many of them.. Highschool students aren't well known for their plentiful cash.. And when I started working was after the whole Napster thing, and I-Tunes started soon after and then every one seemed to just pull up the tent pegs and pack up in the realm of CD shops. But I finally got fed up with it.. and I looked it up and found out that there was a lone FYE inside of 50 miles.. and I went..

I wound up with a few goodies.

I got Uriah Heaps' Wizards and Demons, Judas Priests British Steel and Screaming for vengence.. which are really cool because they are the new Remasters.. and If I get all 12 of them, they apparently make a picture formed of the spines of the albums.. so now I've gotta buy more! Marketing at it's finest.. Emerson Lake and Palmer's "Tarkus", lastly a Blind Gaurdian Album I didn't have.. A Twist in the Myth.

I think I spent about 40$.. Which is phenomenal when you consider I got about 50 tracks.

It may not match up to some of my goodwill finds (once I got the entire discography of "The Cult" which was fantastic..) But I'm thrilled, But I also realize that soon that store too will close and I'll be stuck having to buy all my CD's on like.. Amazon.. Man..

Heavy Metal - Incestuousness and the Led Zeppelin Connection

Having set out recently to Cataloging my library, and needing to take a break from my books (of which I am nearing 4000 volumes not including extra copies) I decided to tackle my Music Collection. It consists of CD's and LP's (hundreds of them!) mainly though I've got quite a few EP's too... I can happily report that apart from the BBC radio adaption of "The Lord of the Rings" I have no Audio Cassettes.

So as I was cataloging my CD's I was also ripping them onto my computer so that I could put them all on my MP3 player. I've always been amused by just how interconnected everything in the world really is, I've previously posted about the genesis of "Transformers" and its station as a bizarre love child of G.I.Joe and Japanese Culture.. I started thinking about something I'd never really given much thought too in the past, how incestuous the bands which formed the early " Heavy metal " core really were.

Members from Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Elf, Whitesnake, Rainbow, Dio, and others traded off with alarming frequency. They share so many similar members that some of them should possibly just be considered " Super groups " formed by the members of other bands.. I also began noticing how many members of those bands went on to found other Heavy metal Bands.. Ozzy Osbourne arguably being the most successful of them when under the guidance of his shrew of a wife he managed to stay sober long enough to put out some rather good albums.. I refuse to comment on his new stuff.. or his family.. any further.

White snake I know is the butt of a lot of jokes, but David Coverdale really got around, he was Vocalist for Deep Purple MKIII, and Very nearly replaced Ronnie James Dio in Black Sabbath, hewent on to found Whitesnake.. and then put out an album with Jimmy Page in 1993.. which brings me to another point.. People frequently list Led Zeppelin as a precursor to Heavy Metal.. and in some ways that might be accurate.. But I'd say that its more appropriately the last " Rock and Roll " band.. it stands at the threshold of Heavy Metal but dosen't cross.. much.

Jimmy Page's Supergroup "The Firm" which had members of Free, Uriah Heep and Bad Company.. limped the blues steeped sound forward into the 80's while Robert Plant went on to do a solo Career..which is so full of hits and misses it would require it's own post... But his first solo album had Cozy Powell on Drums for a few tracks.. which leads us right back... to.. Rainbow! Phil Collins did most of the drums on this album however both he and Powell were rumoured to have been in the running to replace the deceased John Bonham.. Another in this rumour mill was Carmine Appice of Vanilla Fudge who later was in Ted Nugent's band.. and then in King Kobra.. which brings us to a very interesting thing.. Since King Kobra who covered Canadian hair band "Kick Axe"'s song " Hunger " which had been included on the soundtrack for 1986's "Transformers: The Movie"! However I'm digressing now..

Deep Purple is arguably where it all started, though Dio's Electric Elves/Elf started a year earlier.. DP was much bigger.. especially once they got their second vocalist Ian Gillian, He did a couple of albums with them, especially the mega hit "Machine Head" and its track "Smoke on the water" (itself a reference to a Frank Zappa Concert gone wrong)before leaving to go replace Dio in Black Sabbath for just one album.

It really is a tangled web, and one which you can really spend a lot of time thinking about. But by the time you get done with it.. you're likely to wind up with a chart or map which is so convoluted it would be nearly impossible to follow.. highly reminiscent of beach washup art..

Now I guess I will go back to my cataloging..

Salvage Operations

Went to a couple of Charity Shop today, buy most of my stuff at them anyway.. best stuff is not in the big box stores anyway..


Got a LP copy of Uriah Heep's Very 'eavy, Very 'Umble.. Erich Von Daniken's " The Miracles of the Gods " and Laverne Gay's " The Wine of Satan " a book about the first crusade.. a Few Cd's R.E.M - Eponymous, Filter - Amalgamut, and the Soundtrack to the Usual Suspects.. Was an excellent haul for a small town charity shop.