Strictly Limited to 450 copies each of the Picture sleeve and Picture Disc • All of these versions recorded over 4 days in March 1972 at Strawberry Studios, Chateau d’Hérouville, France and are different recordings to those released at the time .• Images on the picture disc taken from ‘top of the pops’ performance of Metal Guru • Image on the picture sleeve is backstage at ‘top of the pops’ for the recording of Metal Guru • These are the very last in the highly successful series of ‘alternative singles’ • Taken from returned tapes to the Bolan family with all royalties going to The Light of Love Foundation for the Marc Bolan School of Music & Film
Strictly Limited to 450 copies each of the Picture sleeve and Picture Disc • All of these versions recorded over 4 days in March 1972 at Strawberry Studios, Chateau d’Hérouville, France and are different recordings to those released at the time .• Images on the picture disc taken from ‘top of the pops’ performance of Metal Guru • Image on the picture sleeve is backstage at ‘top of the pops’ for the recording of Metal Guru • These are the very last in the highly successful series of ‘alternative singles’ • Taken from returned tapes to the Bolan family with all royalties going to The Light of Love Foundation for the Marc Bolan School of Music & Film
By now you’re probably familiar with our wildly popular Brown Acid series of rare, lost and unreleased proto-metal and stoner rock singles from the 60s-70s. In the endless pursuit of those glorious gems, we often uncover equally brilliant rarities from the late-70s to late-80s Golden Age of Heavy Metal that also just must be heard, but they don’t fit the series’ aesthetic. Scrap Metal, Volume 1 collects some of the greatest unknown and lost Heavy Metal tracks, long buried beneath the avalanche of the era’s classic output.
We all know the old adage that history is told by the winners. But sometimes the losers tell the best stories. And while none of these bands found fame and fortune, this artifact and the volumes to come are testament to the enduring power of heavy music. You can hear the blood, sweat and beers that went into each of these singles. The recordings may be low budget, but the inspiration and talent is immutable. Not only are the amps turned up to 11, the boyish sexual innuendo is cranked to 69. You can hear the convergence of influences — NWOBHM, thrash, glam metal, doom, etc — colliding at once as the era birthed a wellspring of subgenres.
Many of these singles are self-released and were thus limited to a small run of copies. Those that remain are hoarded by collectors and sold for exorbitant amounts. We’ve collected the best of the best for you here. As with Brown Acid, all of these tracks are licensed legitimately and the artists all get paid. Because it’s the right thing to do.
LINER NOTES:
Rapid Tears launch this series with the perfect christening. The Toronto, ON quintet’s 1981 single “Headbang” is such the pinnacle of heavy metal madness that it almost sounds like a spoof. There’s also enough of the rapid-fire sputum that inspired Metallica to bang the head that doesn’t, as such, engage in said practice, to be found on the band’s sole full length Honestly. But “Headbang” is a straightforward glammy anthem for the ages.
Air Raid’s “69 In A 55” may be lyrically so sophomoric that it’s actually pretty clever, but this 1983 Bay Area power metal single is loaded with sleek Judas Priest riffs and interwoven melodies that are downright sublime. The band’s sole release, the 2-song Rock Force 7” features a curious band photo in which 3 band members — dolled up in Crüe makeup and leather — are sexually menacing the lead singer/guitarist tied to a bed. Another low budget highlight is when singer/guitarist Tommy “Thrasher” Merry imitates a delay effect on his vocals as he sings, “tonight!...tonight...night.”
Hades’ “Girls Will Be Girls” has a real demo cassette feel to its vastly uneven mix, but the energy to the performance makes this an undeniable keeper. The long running Paramus, NJ quintet’s 1982 2- song debut 7” titled Deliver Us From Evil features this blistering thrasher dominated by shimmering leads and confident vocals that show why the band went on to near-fame on Metal Blade Records.
Resless don’t need no T to prove that they’ve got “The Power” with this 1984 driving mid-tempo rocker in the vein of Mötley Crüe and Ratt. The River Vale, NJ quartet’s tight crunch wails all over Bon Jovi posers but it’s the band’s unique and subtle deployment of background vocals that gives this rager its staying power.
Pittsburgh, the Steel City, is home to Don Cappa, a band that pays tribute to the burgh, the metal, and the awesomeness of both with “Steel City Metal.” Their lone single, issued in 1987 with only 300 copies released, sounds like the work of some serious steel driving men, with a drummer who might’ve forgotten to wear a hard hat one too many times on the construction site.
The Beast has more of a punk feel to their aggressive “Enemy Ace” track from the 4-song Power Metal EP from 1983 — something like Dr. Know meets D.O.A. But their look, artwork and lyrics all prove that Heavy Metal is where their hearts lie. And this hook filled monster delivers repeated lines like, “I command them all in my lofty realm,” with commendable conviction.
Dead Silence from Denver, Colorado, debuting in 1984 is not to be confused with Dead Silence from Denver, Colorado, who also debuted in 1984. The former a workman’s hard rock bar band, the latter a political peace punk band and neither knowing of the other’s existence throughout their tenure. The pre-internet days were a marvel, indeed.This Dead Silence spits out a slick, Nugent tinged rocker called “Can’t Stop” about life on the road.
The Danger Zone is, by all accounts, not the place to be. And, Hazardous Waste of Boston, MA saw fit to add their two cents on the matter with this 1986 single that combines Van Halen’s flashy musicianship with NWOBHM aggression that sounds so awesome it teeters on itself entering the “Danger Zone.”
Czar’s heavy, doomy “Iron Curtain” single from 1982 hearkens to the sleazy sounds of Saint Vitus and Pentagram with its cranked up DOD Distortion pedal in a Peavey combo amp guitar tone and meaty, barking vocals. The upstate NY quintet only issued this 2-song single, but its driving rhythm, nosedive whammy-bar guitar solos and comparatively mature Cold War subject matter show they had real potential.
Not much is known about Real Steel’s majestic “Viking Queen” from 1987, other than it rocks hard and the 7” 45 sells for upwards of a grand on the collectors market. The Flint, Michigan band recorded at the home studio of local radio personality Bill Lamb, who primarily released Christian Gospel recordings. So, perhaps the band was struck down by a bolt of lightning shortly after this rare single’s release. Whatever the case may be, it’s a must have for fans of classic metal mayhem.
For the 25th anniversary of the legendary SNK's game series Metal Slug, Wayô Records is proud to present this new complete edition of the Metal Slug X soundtrack in vinyl format!
One Instrument welcomes the Australian sound artist and composer Felicity Mangan. Based in Berlin since 2008 she plays her found native Australian wildlife archive and other field recordings exploring the timbre and biorhythm of animal voices and field recordings to create minimal quasi-bioacoustic environments.
For the release on One Instrument the mouth organ is her instrument of choice. Felicity explores the resonance and pitch of the reeds within at the harmonica The Echo Harp of the brand M.Hohner. “Bell Metal Reeds” shows a committed and ambitious composition in each singular tone. The striking attention to detail and commitment to investigating tonal possibility characterizes throughout the whole body of work.
As an amateur player, through breath and minimal electronic music composition techniques she composed four beautiful organic ambient pieces within the parameters of the One Instrument concept.
Felicity breaths new life into the harmonica and meditates on a the single instrument where she takes extraordinary sounds out of. The Echo Harp that Felicity used was found on a flea market in Hamburg in February 2020. All tracks were composed during the severe lockdown in the Autumn of 2020 in Berlin.
Felicity Mangan is an Australian sound artist and composer based in Berlin, Germany since 2008. In different situations such as solo performance, collaborative projects with other musicians or installation, Felicity plays her field recording archive exploring timbres and biorhythmic patterns to create quasi-bioacoustic electronic music. Felicity has played in collaborative projects Native Instrument (Shelter Press, Entr’acte) presenting electro-acoustic bug beats with vocalist Stine Janvin.
Felicity has released solo publications on Longform Editions titled Stereo’frog’ic, a play on the word stereophonic – presenting a sound piece, crafted from found recordings of frogs, insects and other ‘vocal’ animals wavering about in a stereo field.
More recently a tape release titled Creepy Crawly on Slovakian label Mappa Editions. With the up and coming release Bell Metal Reeds on One Instrument, November 2021. Felicity has presented projects in many different settings from galleries, gardens, clubs, festivals and online platforms throughout Europe, including National Gallery Denmark, Technosphärenklänge CTM/HKW, Sonic Acts Academy and RIVERSSSOUNDS
At this stage in the game, the name Whitechapel commands respect. Already sitting on one of the most enviable catalogs in contemporary metal, in 2019 they dropped The Valley, showcasing a confident evolution in their sound and standing as a true landmark release that sets a new standard for the genre. In 2021, they return with that album's successor, the mighty Kin , which is an even more dynamic and diverse collection, further advancing the band's sound into new territory without losing sight of what brought them to this point. The commencement of writing for the album was a direct result of the Covid pandemic, the band having several tours lined up to finish out the cycle for The Valley, but when these got cancelled, they decided to refocus their energies and begin working on a new record. The result is a collection that explores a lot of sonic and emotional territory, and for the first time, it could be said that a Whitechapel record is as much a rock album as it is a metal one, an assertion guitarist Alex Wade agrees with. "It's still very much a metal album, I don't think you would hear any of the songs on mainstream radio, but there are elements of the record that have more of a rock and open vibe. We really wanted these songs to breathe and have life and to sound bigger than anything we've made so far. We have explored more singing on 'Kin' too. It wouldn't make sense to have the majority of the fanbase enjoy that sound and then shy away from it." This is not to say that the band have lost their hardest edges, with the full-on death metal assault that kicks off both "Lost Boy" and "To The Wolves" as brutal and serrated as extreme metal gets, and while vocalist Phil Bozeman explores his wide-ranging singing voice more, he also cuts loose with his trademark roar across the album's eleven tracks.
At this stage in the game, the name Whitechapel commands respect. Already sitting on one of the most enviable catalogs in contemporary metal, in 2019 they dropped The Valley, showcasing a confident evolution in their sound and standing as a true landmark release that sets a new standard for the genre. In 2021, they return with that album's successor, the mighty Kin , which is an even more dynamic and diverse collection, further advancing the band's sound into new territory without losing sight of what brought them to this point. The commencement of writing for the album was a direct result of the Covid pandemic, the band having several tours lined up to finish out the cycle for The Valley, but when these got cancelled, they decided to refocus their energies and begin working on a new record. The result is a collection that explores a lot of sonic and emotional territory, and for the first time, it could be said that a Whitechapel record is as much a rock album as it is a metal one, an assertion guitarist Alex Wade agrees with. "It's still very much a metal album, I don't think you would hear any of the songs on mainstream radio, but there are elements of the record that have more of a rock and open vibe. We really wanted these songs to breathe and have life and to sound bigger than anything we've made so far. We have explored more singing on 'Kin' too. It wouldn't make sense to have the majority of the fanbase enjoy that sound and then shy away from it." This is not to say that the band have lost their hardest edges, with the full-on death metal assault that kicks off both "Lost Boy" and "To The Wolves" as brutal and serrated as extreme metal gets, and while vocalist Phil Bozeman explores his wide-ranging singing voice more, he also cuts loose with his trademark roar across the album's eleven tracks.
Mondo, in conjunction with Konami, are proud to present the premiere US physical release of the soundtrack to 1990's espionage classic METAL GEAR 2: SOLID SNAKE.
Hideo Kojima's direct, chronological sequel to the original MSX2 version of Metal Gear (not to be confused with the NES, ULTRA Games version of Metal Gear, nor is this title to be confused with it's unofficial sequel Snake's Revenge), Solid Snake tells the story of our previously retired hero's infiltration of Zanziberland to rescue a kidnapped Bio-Engineer, and ultimately destroy the latest Metal Gear. Audio-wise it features a step up on audio quality from its predecessor - the soundtrack to Solid Snake is a melodic, and dynamic synth soundtrack album that is heavily inspired by the synth wave soundtracks of 80's action and horror films.
Music by Konami Kukeiha Club
Artwork by Oliver Barrett
Manufactured in the Czech Republic
Live Undead is the first live album by American thrash metal masters Slayer. It was originally released by Metal Blade Records in November, 1984.
Hell Awaits is the second studio offering by American thrash metal legends Slayer, originally released in March 1985 by Metal Blade Records. When it was released in 1985, Slayer's second full album, Hell Awaits, seemed to many a nearly impenetrable cacophony of sound. However, it proved to be incredibly ahead of its time instead, and has since been confirmed as a mandatory item in the band's remarkable discography
Boasting the awesome "Chemical Warfare," a regular staple of Slayer's live shows, the Haunting the Chapel EP was a more crucial stepping stone in the legendary L.A. band's career development than many give it credit for. Issued in between the band's very promising debut and the following year's more sonically ripened Hell Awaits, Haunting the Chapel offers important clues about this transition period, which saw Slayer's rock-based song structures give way to the non-linear, genre-defining style thereafter regarded as thrash metal's signature sound. Among the uniformly solid cuts here, the enduring fan favorite "Captor of Sin" is another highlight, making this a well-recommended release for committed Slayer fans. - AllMusic
Dean Blunt returns with Black Metal 2 - a strong set of melancholic, unconventional songs. Tip
2021 marks the 30th anniversary of Symbol of Salvation ; The fourth Armored Saint album originally released in 1991. To celebrate this iconic release, Metal Blade Records is releasing audio and dvd footage of the seminal record being played live in its entirety from the Symbol of Salvation Live! tour that took place in 2018.
2021 marks the 30th anniversary of Symbol of Salvation ; The fourth Armored Saint album originally released in 1991. To celebrate this iconic release, Metal Blade Records is releasing audio and dvd footage of the seminal record being played live in its entirety from the Symbol of Salvation Live! tour that took place in 2018.
Released via Sony CMG - heavy metal legends mark an incredible 50 year career with a brand new collection of 16 tracks including remastered studio recordings and 7 previously unreleased live cuts from the band’s archive. Restored and mixed by Tom Allom at La Cucina W8 and mastered by Alex Wharton at Abbey Road Studios. Available on CD and 2 LP gatefold heavyweight red vinyl (limited/allocated). Promo/marketing activity across all media outlets.
No one combines death and black metal quite like Poland’s Hate . With unflinching viciousness and a sense of atmosphere unique to the band, on Rugia, their twelfth full-length, they push the boundaries of their craft even further. Writing for Rugia commenced shortly after Auric Gates of Veles was released. However, Hate soon began to tour extensively in support of their then new opus, and the production of new music was put on the back burner. But come 2020 and the COVID pandemic, the band’s touring plans with Belphegor and Suffocation were abruptly cut short. With this unexpected infusion of free time, the band decided to buckle down and finish writing the material they were working on. .” The album title is taken from the archaic name of a German island on the Baltic Sea now called Rügen. In ancient times, Rügen or Rugia, was a site of holy pilgrimage to the pagan Slavic people. It was the very heart of the western Slavic faith, housing the fabled stronghold of Arkona. The album is at its core a tribute to Rugia and its tribes and the culture they created. The band elected to once again track the album in the Hertz Recording Studio in Poland, and it was recorded, mixed and mastered by the Wiesłaski Brothers (Behemoth, Decapitated).
Sweden’s Aeon return God Ends Here, and in doing so, up the ante with a record that is bigger, harder and stronger in every way. A darker, even more epic collection, it is everything an Aeon fan could want with a few surprises in store, pushing the genre in new directions and once again asserting that they are one of the most important bands in extreme metal. With dramatic artwork by Italian artist Paolo Girardi the final piece of the puzzle, the finished package extends Aeon’s legacy and gives the genre the push that was intended from the outset. They may have been gone a long time but make no mistake: Aeon are back, and God Ends Here will lay waste to all.
