Service for a vacant CD store: labels from used CDs I bought years ago

One of the areas where I previously lived used to be graced with a really great franchise of used CD stores scattered all over town; I've bought music at many places--some arguably better--before and since then, but I did appreciate that I found good metal consistently at all their locations.  Sadly, they all closed a while ago.  So long ago, in fact, that one of the stores had become a unrelated indie music store that was around for several years, and even THAT closed down some time ago.

These stores all kept their discs behind the counter, so each case got a white Avery-or-comparable-style label on the tray, dot-matrix printed with title, pricing, and location information.  AND FOR SOME REASON, I STUCK SOME OF THESE TO PAPER AND SAVED THEM.

Unfortunately, slowly they rot--many of them are yellowing, fading, and curling at the edges (with the exposed adhesive side serving as a lint magnet).  Looking over the titles I bought is nostalgic, but it's time to toss them, which is what happened to their associated old timey dot-matrix printed store receipts long ago.  However, I have scanned them for posterity, and present them now with anecdotes.  Let us return to the glorious days of '90s compact disc retail:

Picked this up on my very first visit to this particular store.  Even at 99 cents, I remember having to contemplate whether to get this or not.  Had no clue who the band were at that time.  The logo looked decidedly metal, which prompted me to look at the CD more closely, but I remember being confused by Freddy Krueger's picture on the cover.  The band pictures were also inconclusive due to the prescence of a rather baby-faced blonde member, a blue (non-denim) jacket, and the lack of any deadly weapons, metal gear.  The cincher ended up being the song "Antikrist," since I could at least understand that among all the Czech songtitles.  Of course, after getting home and listening to this, I realized buying it was a wise decision.

Bought these together, same store as above.  The Abomination debut was in the bins from the very first time I went to the store, but it took a while before I finally bought it (since the store tended to mark down metal, I think I was waiting to see if they'd lower the price).  So fast forward to a few months later, when Rrröööaaarrr shows up.  Keep in mind I had never seen the album before, SO THE KILLER LOOK OF THE AWAYTANK TOTALLY MESMERIZES ME.  OF COURSE I HAVE TO BUY IT.  Well, the act of buying the Voivod CD just so happened to fill up my frequent buyer card, so since I was due a free CD, I finally snagged the Abomination disc.



This is not one of the singles, it's the promotional-only CD that I believe was intended as a sampler for Best of the Beast.  It has "Virus," "Man on the Edge," a live Blaze version of "Afraid of Shoot Strangers," and then 6 tracks of Dickinson/Di'Anno-era material.

I think this may have been the first time I saw a copy of Reign in Blood used, presumably because used copies didn't sit unsold for too long.  When I first saw this, I didn't buy it, and I was sort of surprised it was still there when I went back on my next visit.  Looked at it again, and upon closer inspection realized it was the Japanese press.  I didn't repeat the mistake of not buying it.

In fact, this was only $2.99 or $3.99, but I don't have the second label that amended the price.  This was the Metal Blade press--I was happy with the purchase at the time, not realizing that they cut "Bells of Acheron"--my favorite song from Ancient Dreams--for the U.S. version.

 

Didn't get these at the same time.  Initially I only knew of the band from their appearance as the opening act on the 3-Way Thrash video.  Remember guitarist John Bury's killer thrashafro?  Human Wreckage can be counted as one of the better UK thrash albums; the follow-up is not terrible but quite generic.

Also picked up Belial - Wisdom of Darkness (with the nicer landscape cover), Sadistic Intent -Resurrection, and Usurper - Diabolosis in the same trip.  Ironic how only the label for the worst CD of the bunch remains.



 

This was the old uncensored cover pressing with most of Reek... as bonustracks.  The guy at the counter jokingly asked if I had looked at the cover, saying it would give him nightmares. 

 

I'm glad I found this, but I've always thought everything Destroyer 666 paled in comparison to the debut.  Most of their EP tracks are better than the album stuff, and Phoenix Rising fares a little better with the new version of "Eternal Glory of War," but I'll take Violence is the Prince... over the rest any day. 

 

I believe this had just been released so it was kind of surprising to find it used.  Luck of the Corpse and The 13 Frightened Souls are some of my favorite death metal of all time--I still liked them here with the thrashier sound, but I'm indifferent about later stuff aside from the cover tunes.

 

Got these at the same time, and coincidentally, they're both fine '95 black metal debuts.  I won't say anymore as I need to conserve Maniac Butcher content for the inevitable post about bands who superimpose themselves onto horsies in pictures.

 

This was in excellent condition, quite surprising for a Slayer CD.  I think the store manager may have even made a remark about that to me when ringing me up, but it's been so long I don't remember.

 

Didn't quite buy these at the same time--consecutive trips, I believe.  Close enough.  Both of these were the European Geffen presses with the helpful stickered reminders that they were DIGITALLY REMASTERED and indeed NO FUCKIN' BOOTLEGS.  I think Into Glory Ride was marked down from the price on the label but I honestly can't remember.    

 

Yes, you are reading that correctly.

And the rest:

 

As a bonus, some additional labels from other stores that I happened to save:

This particular place put CDs into those individual anti-theft frame things, so they used jumbo-size labels placed on the back of the case.  I was happy to have Bonded by Blood on CD, but there was also a slight twinge of disappointment since it was the red cover reissue.  I don't even particularly like the original artwork, but nevertheless, it's iconic, and still better than a colorized crowd shot. 

Same store as above.  Bought these together, brand new.  Despite the price tags, I only paid $13.99 total since they both had colored stickers on the front indicating they were half-off.

This was for Indestructible Noise Command's The Visitor.  Getting it for $2.99 was a steal already, but they let me have it free since the booklet had a tear in it.

Metal liner notes of the day



Metal liner notes of the day

TEN NÁŠ BLACK METAL

AS A TRIBUTE TO ROOT'S GREATEST TUNE, WE WILL NOW HAVE A CONTINUATION OF SORTS OF THE PREVIOUS POST.

First, a keyboard version.  Note the tongue at the end--this will be thematically important later.

Obviously not anywhere near as good as the original, but it's pretty catchy, and there's no denying the talent here.

 

Now---well, there's nothing descriptive I can write to do this justice.  See for yourself: 

The weirdness factor here exceeds that of the original video.  To be fair, I probably look similar when listening to the song, except I don't cut out templates of Big Boss' corpsepaint and apply them to my face.

 

Finally, some performances with old friends:

 



I find the slow section here (especially the evillaughter) to be astonishingly good for such a later live version. 

Videos of the unholy trinity of Czech black metal

Sadly, if you were to mention "Czech black metal videos," what comes to mind first would likely be Maniac Butcher's "Co Dobré Pro Mne, Dobrým Jest," or perhaps that Trollech video where the members start off playing guitar calf-deep in a creek.  Something akin to the atrocious "Call of the Wintermoon" video and its much deserved parodies--budgetless stuff full of silly in-the-forest posturing.  But long before Barbarud and Vlad Blasphemer were headbanging in the great outdoors or storming bridges with woodcutting implements in jerky slow motion, there were Czech black metal videos.

In fact, all three pioneering Czechoslovakian black metal bands had professional videoclips made roughly around the times of their debut albums.  Think about that--at a time when most of the infamous Norwegian black metal musicians were still playing death metal, these bands had REAL VIDEOS.  Although it wasn't uncommon for old East-European heavy metal bands to have videos, with the exception of Venom, these are probably the earliest black metal production videos ever made.

Yes, yes, I know the black mass-themed video for "Geniové" is better known.  That clip is a fine one too, but there's something I like about this video better.  The seizure-inducing speed of the cuts during the playback parts?  The dramatic hand movements?  Franta and co.'s struggle with the bars of the gate reminding me of the "Breaking the Law" video?

This is the most professional of the three videos.  I'm curious where the interspersed footage is from--I've seen claims that it's from the 1969 eponymous film Kladivo Na Čarodějnice (alternate title: Don't Steal the Communion Wafer, You Old Fucking Hag), which is incorrect, as firstly, that was a black and white movie, and secondly, there's way too much action in the footage here.

We finish with what may well be the greatest extreme metal vid ever made.  I don't mean that in a smug or belittling way, either.  This could have been a disastrously silly video if made under other conditions.  CONDITIONS THAT DON'T INCLUDE BIG BOSS.  The man is a legend, but that doesn't mean we can't be honest about his unconventional age and look, even back then--his slightly maniacal, child molester-esque demeanor lends a genuinely creepy feel to the proceedings here, which is perfect for the theme.

Metal liner notes of the day

Metal liner notes of the day