Random shelf pulls March 20 edition

[Random Axe]

So, in my quest to rediscover stuff now that I have a CD player in my vehicle, here's some discs I've tried to roll with, good or bad.

Secret Sphere/Lifeblood - How the hell didn't I not recognize how good this band truly is? I've gone back and listened to some other samples from them and I'm totally impressed, liking this much better than most of Labyrinth. I know of the Luppi album, which was pretty decent. This singer Rob Messina is really, really good. I've since gone back and ordered a few more from them.

Alchemyst - Same for this band and same singer, Messina. With this band its more proggy like Enchant or like if Artension ever wrote anything catchy or memorable. He's giving off a John West/Ted Leonard vibe here.

Avian/Ashes and Madness - Forgot about this band. Guess Lance is still the vocalist. Pretty pleasant power metal with a bit of a production problem where it sounds too clean? Not bad but I doubt I'll listen again. I think there's a second album? I'll give that a go.

Paul Carrack - I totally forgot just how good this guy is. It's nothing remotely metal or prog, but damn this guy can bring it. He sang for Mike + Mechanics and had a few solo hits. Just a phenomenal, blusesy voice.

Scudiero/Walking Through Mirrors - Don't remember this at all. Good stuff, melodic, some crunch, nice vocals. I'd have been all over this when it was released in 1999. Doesn't appear they ever did anything else.

Order of Nine - WTF is this? They've got a prog crunch sound like Nevermore and some gothic, Type O Negative vox and trying to tap into a Saviour Machine feel. None of it works. Kinda off-putting if I'm being honest. I think they were on Nightmare label? Not digging at all.

[Sir Exar Kun]

Secret Sphere/Lifeblood - How the hell didn't I not recognize how good this band truly is? I've gone back and listened to some other samples from them and I'm totally impressed, liking this much better than most of Labyrinth. I know of the Luppi album, which was pretty decent. This singer Rob Messina is really, really good. I've since gone back and ordered a few more from them.

Solid band throughout their career. If you have not heard it, "A Time Never Come" Is far and away their masterpiece, and honestly one of the best symphonic power metal albums of that era. They re-recorded it (unnecessarily) with Luppi on vocals, and as good as he is, the original still takes the cake. I am also REALLY impressed with the newest one (Blackened Heartbeat) as it's a bit on the heavy side for this band.

Avian/Ashes and Madness - Forgot about this band. Guess Lance is still the vocalist. Pretty pleasant power metal with a bit of a production problem where it sounds too clean? Not bad but I doubt I'll listen again. I think there's a second album? I'll give that a go.

I'll go for anything Lance sings on. Great album, as is the followup. Never considered an album sounding "too clean" to be a problem though...

[introclaus]

So, in my quest to rediscover stuff now that I have a CD player in my vehicle, here's some discs I've tried to roll with, good or bad.

That's awesome - I don't have a CD playing in my car, so it all is from my phone. I guess I'd go back through old stuff more if I had a CD player there .... hmmmm

Secret Sphere/Lifeblood - How the hell didn't I not recognize how good this band truly is? I've gone back and listened to some other samples from them and I'm totally impressed, liking this much better than most of Labyrinth. I know of the Luppi album, which was pretty decent. This singer Rob Messina is really, really good. I've since gone back and ordered a few more from them.

Yes, they made some TOTALLY GREAT albums, and also a few less great ones.

Alchemyst - Same for this band and same singer, Messina. With this band its more proggy like Enchant or like if Artension ever wrote anything catchy or memorable. He's giving off a John West/Ted Leonard vibe here.

This was a French band that Robert helped out ... it wasn't too good imo

Avian/Ashes and Madness - Forgot about this band. Guess Lance is still the vocalist. Pretty pleasant power metal with a bit of a production problem where it sounds too clean? Not bad but I doubt I'll listen again. I think there's a second album? I'll give that a go.

The debut was good (but also very "clean"). I didn't like the second one ("Ashes and Madness") and never checked out their EP which has a different singer.

Paul Carrack - I totally forgot just how good this guy is. It's nothing remotely metal or prog, but damn this guy can bring it. He sang for Mike + Mechanics and had a few solo hits. Just a phenomenal, blusesy voice.

I remember Mike and the Mechanics as a pop-spinoff from Genesis. Never really cared, except I found it funny that they had a guy called Paul Young as a vocalist at some point in time, but it wasn't THE same Paul Young that I listened to when I was a kid.

Scudiero/Walking Through Mirrors - Don't remember this at all. Good stuff, melodic, some crunch, nice vocals. I'd have been all over this when it was released in 1999. Doesn't appear they ever did anything else.

Good album - yes, they should have continued as they had a great sound (like a Royal Hunt mixed with Pain of Salvation mixed with Tad Morose). ProgPower

Order of Nine - WTF is this? They've got a prog crunch sound like Nevermore and some gothic, Type O Negative vox and trying to tap into a Saviour Machine feel. None of it works. Kinda off-putting if I'm being honest. I think they were on Nightmare label? Not digging at all.

I have that as well, and I never listen to it at all, for same reasons you point out.

[jhallum]

That's awesome - I don't have a CD playing in my car, so it all is from my phone. I guess I'd go back through old stuff more if I had a CD player there .... hmmmm

Pick a band from every letter of the alphabet on your phone and just go from a-z, or via album from a-z.

Last time I did a pass through, I did a-z via albums, which was kinda fun, that was 2018, and pre radioshow, now I spend too much time listening to new stuff to go back through old with any sort of velocity.

[Random Axe]

My Bronco didn't come with either a CD player or navigation. During Covid there was a chip shortage so they rolled a bunch out without.

I rigged a player into one of the cubby holes in the dash, one that doesn't skip. It also doesn't display the track name or band, but I can't have everything.

I'm simply grabbing discs I don't remember, or just slightly remember as being pretty good. I don't have a massive collection as I sold a bunch many years ago but have just enough to not remember about 15 percent of them or more. That's how I rediscovered Innerwish, Centaur, Mindflow and several others.

So now when I find something i really like I'll rip it to a flash drive, use that moving forward and put the CD back on the shelf.

Now that I actually have a decent laptop I can rip discs all day pretty quickly.

[Hearing Aid Man]

I pretty much freak out on all the Lance King stuff, but for some reason I never got into the Avian releases?

Had the Scudiero back in the day. Never really got into it much even though their style is what I typically love.

Funny I checked and still have 2 Order of Nine cds in my collection. Haven't played them in a long time. I seem to remember thinking they were pretty good. I'll have to give them a spin.

Never checked out Secret Sphere. I recently heard a killer ballad on a power metal mix of bands. Might have to investigate further.