The Haul

Let's face it. In the digital age, music libraries are stored on a hard drive instead of a CD rack or in a milk crate. I collect vinyl, demo cassettes and the occasional CD but even I have terabytes of music stored on my hard drive but nothing compares with the thrill of finding a rare gem or old classic after an hour of digging through second hand bins. This column will be dedicated to those finds. On a weekly basis I'll be posting up what I find. On weeks I need to save the cash, I'll be digging into my collection and saying a word or two about it.

Without further ado, I present This Week's Haul.

YNGWIE MALMSTEEN'S RISING FORCE

I'm not a guy who's into long bouts of shredding and wankery but I do like me the first couple of Malmsteen album's. This one is bit more on the melodic side rather than the pure wank side and probably his standout album. Really a piece of metal history from a guy who has influenced so many great guitarists.

 

RELEASED: March 5, 1984

LABEL: Polydor Records

CATALOGUE NUMBER: 825 324-1 (US 1st Press)

STANDOUT TRACK: Icarus Dream Suite OP.4

VG+/VG+

PRICE: $5

SLAYER - HAUNTING THE CHAPEL EP

 

Other than the classic songs, I ignored Slayer for a long time. What an asshole. My first full album exposure to Slayer was Diabolus In Musica when it was the soundtrack to me dropping liquid acid under my tongue for the summer. Lot's of good memories tied to that one but needless to say, it doesn't hold a candle to the classics. Anyway, Haunting The Chapel is the EP between Show No Mercy and Hell Awaits. The change between the two albums was evident here as they showed less NWOBHM influences and become much thrashier.

RELEASED: June, 1984

LABEL: Metal Blade Records

CATALOGUE NUMBER: MBR 1024 (US 1987 Re-Issue)

STANDOUT TRACK: Chemical Warfare

EX/EX

PRICE: $20

ANTHRAX - SPREADING THE DISEASE

There was a time when I enjoyed John Bush Anthrax more than Joey Belladonna Anthrax. That is no longer so after seeing Belladonna live a couple years ago. I'm not a huge Anthrax fan to be honest but it's hard to top the first couple. I had the Armed and Dangerous single in my hand when I spotted this one and since this is the full album I decided to get this instead.

RELEASED: October 30, 1985

LABEL: Island Records

CATALOGUE NUMBER: 90480-1 (US 1st Press)

STANDOUT TRACK: Armed and Dangerous

EX/EX

PRICE: $8

I also finally grabbed Magister Templi and the new Toxic Holocaust on vinyl. For more on Magister Templi go check out my "Best of The First Half of 2013" column. For more on Toxic Holocaust, I'll be reviewing that in a couple of days.

Until then...

BUY MUSIC!!!